ISRO set for next launch as INSAT-4B conks off

India’s communication satellite INSAT4B conked out in space following power problems, leading to ‘partial nonavailability of services’ even as preparations are on for the launch of the next rocket, PSLVC15, which has been scheduled for liftoff on Monday morning.INSAT4B with 24 communication transponders 12 KuBand and 12 CBand on board has been in operation since March 2007 after it was launched into space by an Arine 5 rocket from the French Guyana. It was on a geostationary orbit (93.5 degrees E longitudinal) and expected to have a life span of 12 years. But after just three years, on Wednesday night, one of its two solar panels had developed problems causing a power supply glitch leading to the switching ‘off’ of 50 per cent of its transponders.A press release from ISRO on Friday said: “An expert team is studying the possibilities of partial utilisation of some of the transponders that were switched ‘off’ and restoring the services at the earliest.” Be that as it may, ISRO will launch its 17th Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which has proved to be its workhorse over the years with a minimum rate of failure, at 9.23 am on Monday. Preparations are on at the spacesport in Sriharikotta and the 51hour countdown is expected to begin on Saturday morning.The launch will be closely watched by space scientists around the world as it comes close on the heels of the GSLVD3 mission that failed on April 15 with the rocket plunging into the Bay of Bengal. It is also crucial for ISRO’s present chairman K Radhakrishnan, as the failed mission was the maiden launch by India after he took over as the head of the organisation. The fourstage PSLVC15 will place its payloads a 694kg Cartosat2B, a 116kg Algerian satellite ALSAT2A, two nano satellites NLS 6.1 and NLS 6.2 from University of Toronto, Canada, weighing 6.5 kg and STUDSAT, a satellite built by students from academic institutions in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, weighing less than one kg in a 630 km Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit.Cartosat2B will be the 17th remote sensing satellite of India. It is mainly intended to augment remote sensing data services to the users of multiple spot scene imagery with 0.8 metre spatial resolution and 9.6 km swath in the panchromatic band.The multiple spot scene imagery sent by Cartosat2B’s panchromatic camera would be useful for village level/cadastral level resource assessment and mapping, detailed urban and infrastructure planning and development and transportation system planning.

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