The orbit raising operations on the GSAT-1 satellite continued early this morning (April 21, 2001) from the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan. The operation was carried out at 1:50 am IST for 29 minutes when the spacecraft was at its apogee (farthest point from the earth). This operation imparted an additional velocity of 600 metre per second to the satellite and raised the perigee (nearest point from earth) of the satellite orbit from 3000 km to 11,900 km. The apogee remains at its geo-synchronous altitude of 35,880 km. The inclination of the orbit with respect to the equatorial plane has been further reduced to 5.5 degree. The orbital period now is 14.50 hour.

Further manoeuvres will be carried out in the coming days to finally place the GSAT-1 satellite in the intended Geo-stationary orbit.

The health of the satellite continues to be normal.