CHENNAI, Apr 1: The 58.30-hour countdown for the April four launch of ISRO’s PSLV-C24/IRNSS-1B Mission would start at 0644 hrs tomorrow morning.
ISRO sources here today said the launch rehearsal activities were completed successfully and the pre-countdown activities were in progress at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at the India’s spaceport of Sriharikota, about 80 km from here. The IRNSS-1B spacecraft was already integrated with the PSLV-C24 launch vehicle.
The PSLV-C24, carrying the 1432 kg IRNSS-1B, will lift off from
the First Launch Pad at SHAR Range at 1714 hrs on April four. During the countdown, propellants would be filled in the four-stage PSLV vehicle, the sources added. The 44.4 metre tall PSLV-C24 vehicle, with a lift off mass of 320 tons, would be ISRO’s 26th flight. It would use XL version of PSLV.This was for the sixth time ISRO would be using the ‘XL’ configuration.
The earlier five being PSLV-C11 (Chandrayaan-1),PSLV-C17/GSAt-12, PSLV-C19/RISAT-1, PSLV-C22/IRNSS-1A and the PSLV-C25 Mars Orbiter Spacecraft Missions.
About 18 minutes after the lift off, the satellite would be launched into a Sub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit with an apogee of 20,652 km and a perigee of 284 km with an inclination of 19.2 deg with respect to the equatorial plane. IRNSS-1B is the second navigation satellite of the seven satellites constriting the IRNSS space segment. Its predecessor, IRNSS-1A was launched by PSLV-C22 in July last
year.
The configuration of IRNSS-1B was similar to that of its IRNSS-1A and the satellite has been realised in less than seven months after the launch of its predecessor. With a mission life of ten years, the applications of IRNSS-1B included terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, 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, besides visual and voice navigation for drivers.
It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area. The Extended Service Area lies between primary service area and area enclosed by the rectangle from Latitude 30 deg South to 50 deg North, Longitude 30 deg East to 130 deg East. IRNSS will 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 is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area. IRNSS comprises a space segment and a ground segment. The IRNSS space segment consists of seven satellites with three satellites in geostationary orbit and four satellites in inclined geosynchronous orbit.
IRNSS-1A, the first satellite of the IRNSS constellation, has already started functioning from its designated orbital slot after extensive on orbit test and evaluation to confirm its satisfactory performance.
IRNSS ground segment is responsible for navigation parameter generation and transmission, satellite control, ranging and integrity monitoring and time keeping. (UNI)
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