CHENNAI, June 25: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch the country’s first dedicated navigational satellite IRNSS-1A at 2341 hrs on July one from the spaceport of Sriharikota, about 100 km from here.
ISRO sources told UNI today that the satellite would be launched by its workhorse launch vehicle PSLV-C22.
The IRNSS-1A Spacecraft was mounted on the launch vehicle and the systematic checks were in progress.
The T-64 hour countdown for the launch would begin on June 29.
On the reason for fixing the launch time at 2340 hrs, the sources said “the timing is determined by the specific orbit and the inclination that is required for the spacecraft”.
The IRNSS-1A would be placed in a sub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (sub GTO) with a 284 km perigee (nearest point to Earth) and 20,650 km apogee (farthest point from the earth) with an inclination of 17.86 deg with respect to the equatorial plane.
PSLV-C22 is the 24th PSLV Mission of ISRO. The ‘XL’ version of PSLV, with six extended solid strap-on motors, would be used for the mission.
This would be the fourth time ISRO would be using its XL version of PSLV–the earlier three being PSLV-C11 for the prestigious Chandrayaan-1, PSLV-C17 GSAT-12 and PSLV-C19 RISAT-1 missions.
IRNSS-1A, the first Indian Navigation Satellite, was earlier scheduled for launch on June 12 at 0101 hrs.
The satellite has gone through all electrical checks and was ready for propellant filling.
But during the electrical checks of the launch vehicle, an anomaly was observed in one of the electro-hydraulic control actuators in the second stage and it was decided to replace the actuator.
Since the replacement of the control actuator needs two weeks of activity at the Launch Pad and the Vehicle Assembly, the launch was deferred by two weeks and it was now slated for take off on July one.
The 44 metre tall launch vehicle, with a lift off mass of 320 tons, would be launched from the first launch pad.
With a mission life of ten years, IRNSS-1A is the first satellite in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System.
It is one of the seven satellites constituting the IRNSS space segment.
After its injection into the preliminary orbit, the solar panels would automatically be deployed and the Master Control Facility at Hassan would take control of the satellite and perform the initial orbit raising manoeuvres using the Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) onboard the satellite, before finally placing it in the circular geosynchronous orbit at 55 deg east location with an inclination of 29 deg with respect to the equator.
ISRO sources said IRNSS was an Independent Regional Navigational Satellite System being developed by India.
It was designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending upto 1500 km from its boundary, which is its Primary Service Area.
The Extended Service Area lies between the Primary Service Area and the area enclosed by the rectangle from Lat 30 deg South to 50 deg North, Longitude 30 deg East to 130 deg East.
IRNSS would provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS), which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users.
The IRNSS system was expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service areas.
The IRNSS consists of a space segmenet and a ground segment. The space segment consists of seven satellites, with three satellites in geostationary orbit and four in inclined geosynchronous orbit. The IRNSS ground segment was responsbile for navigation parameter generation and transmission, satellite control, ranging and integrity monitoring and time keeping.
The IRNSS applications could be used for terrestrial, aerial and marine navigatioin, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, integration with mobile phones, precise timing, mapping and geodetic data capture, terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers and visual and voice navigation for drivers. (UNI)
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