Mission type Communications COSPAR ID 2003-043E Manufacturer ISRO Inclination 0.06° Period 24 hours Bus I-2K | Operator ISRO SATCAT no. 27951 Launch date 27 September 2003 Inclination 0.06° Launch site Guiana Space Centre | |
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Mission duration 10 years, 5 months, 5 days Similar INSAT‑3C, INSAT‑3A, INSAT‑2E, INSAT‑3B, GSAT‑2 | ||
INSAT 3E is a defunct communication satellite built by Indian Space Research Organisation. It was launched on September 28, 2003 from the European Space Agency's spaceport in French Guiana on board the Ariane rocket. The satellite had a launch mass of 2750 kilograms. It is the 4th satellite launched in the INSAT-3 series of ISRO.It was designed for providing high-speed communication, Television, VSAT & Tele-education services and was an important landmark in Indian Space Programme.
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In April 2014, almost eleven years after being launched, the satellite ran out of oxidizer and a few days later, was decommissioned by the ISRO. In a few days time, it will be moved to a graveyard orbit.
Launch
INSAT 3E was launched from Kourou, French Guyana on September 28, 2003 on European consortium Ariane space's Ariane 5-V162 launcher along with two other satellites viz. Eurobird 3 of Eutelsat and SMART-1 of European Space Agency at 4.44 am IST.It was placed into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) 30 minutes after the lift-off, in 3-axis stabilised mode, with a perigee of 649 km and an apogee of 35,923 km and an inclination of 7 deg. with respect to the equator. Its Master Control Facility(MCF) is at Hassan,Karnataka(India).
Payload
INSAT 3E payload consists of C-band and extended C-band tranponders. It has 24 C-band transponders, having India beam coverage providing an Edge Of Coverage-Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EOC-EIRP) of 38.5 dBW and 12 upper extended C-band transponders having India beam coverage providing an EOC-EIRP of 38 dBW.
Retirement
On April 1, 2014, Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, while speaking to the Indian English newspaper "The Hindu", said that INSAT 3E had been decommissioned. The newspaper reported that a few days before, the satellite had run out of the on-board oxidiser, which is essential to burn the fuel that kept it Earth-locked (fixed over India) and running its daily functions. The ISRO had apparently expected that the satellite, positioned at 55 degrees E longitude, would last a few more months and that it would be smoothly replaced with GSAT-16. The Master Control Facility at Hassan is due to move the expired satellite into a graveyard orbit.