Recently launched, ISRO loses communication with GSAT-6A

Bengaluru, April 1: Creating history with the launch of GSAT-6A satellite via the GSLV from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Indian Space Research Organisation has built up a lot of curiosity among the people. Unfortunately, things are not quite well as it assumed to be. ISRO confirmed it today afternoon that communication with GSAT-6A, the country's newest communication satellite, was lost after the second firing of the on-board engine, which was performed on Saturday.

 

However, efforts are underway to establish the link with the satellite. During the satellite's second orbit manoeuvre from the Master Control Facility (MCF) in Hassan, the engineers noticed a power glitch. It seems that the GSAT-6A was not sending back signals. The top brass, including Chairman K. Sivan, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) and MCF officials went into a huddle at the ISRO headquarters and later at the MCF.

One person familiar with satellite technologies said spacecraft have redundancies or backups; the MCF worked on it overnight on Saturday. The 2,000 kg-plus GSAT-6A was launched on the indigenous GSLV rocket on March 29 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. It was placed in an initial elliptical orbit 169.4 km x 36,692 km.

The MCF picked up its control within minutes. From March 30, it started routinely correcting the orbit into a circular one a critical but frequently done exercise that lasts for about a week to ten days.

After the first on-board motor firing for about 36 minutes on Friday morning, the ISRO announced that the satellite's orbit became 36,412 km X 5,054 km with an inclination of 11.93 degrees to the Equator; it was circling the Earth almost every 13 hours.

Built to last ten years in space, GSAT-6A came with a technology that combines a large unfurlable S-band antenna in space and small, hand-held ground terminals highly suited for the military in remote area operations. It was expected to join its three-year-old sibling, GSAT-6, in the next few weeks.