September 30, 2003
INSAT-3E Orbit Raised Further
In the second orbit raising manoeuvre, conducted at 2.38 pm (IST) today (September 30, 2003), the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board INSAT-3E was fired for 36 minutes by commanding the satellite from Master Control Facility (MCF), Hassan. With this LAM firing, INSAT-3E perigee (closest point to the earth) has been raised from 14,960 km to 33,000 km. The apogee (farthest point to earth) is at 35,750 km and the inclination of the orbit with respect to the equatorial plane has been reduced from 1.9 deg to the present 0.14 deg. INSAT-3E now has an orbital period of 22 hour 40 minutes. The satellite will now be in the continuous radio visibility of MCF-Hassan.
INSAT-3E was launched by Ariane-5 of Arianespace on September 28, 2003 from Kourou, French Guyana, and the first orbit raising manoeuvre was carried out from MCF-Hassan yesterday morning (September 29, 2003). The satellite came within the radio visibility of MCF this morning at 8.41 am (IST), and all the necessary operations like earth acquisition and gyro calibration were carried out before the second orbit raising manoeuvre was started.

All systems on board INSAT-3E are functioning normally. The third apogee motor firing is planned in the next few days.