BENGALURU/ CHENNAI: India’s prestigious space programme suffered a second body blow within seven months as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) failed to establish contact with the recently launched GSAT-6A communication satellite since Saturday morning, casting doubts on whether the `270 crore satellite would be salvaged at all.
Seven months ago, the heat shield of India’s first private sector built a satellite, IRNSS-1H, failed to separate, making it a trapped space junk.GSAT-6A is the most powerful communication satellite having both civilian and defence applications. It was after the second orbit-raising operations of the satellite on Saturday morning that the Master Control Facility at Hassan mysteriously lost contact with the satellite.
The orbit-raising operation started at about 10.15 am and the liquid apogee motor firing of the satellite went on for 53 minutes.
In an official statement released around Sunday noon, ISRO claimed that efforts were under way to re-establish link with the satellite. Scientists suspect an on-board power system glitch and are working to salvage the satellite’s power using back-up and alternative means.
All through the day, scientists remained tight-lipped over the reasons for the failure. ISRO chairman K Sivan and top ISRO space scientists went into a crisis management mode to explore means to re-establish links with the satellite. Sivan constituted an inquiry committee headed by renowned space scientist Prem Shanker Goel. Sivan told The New Indian Express from Hassan over phone, “There was a small power failure on the satellite. When that happens, it automatically goes into safe mode. We then lost the link.”
He added, “We are working very hard at it and the link will be established.”
After the launch of the satellite on March 29, the first orbit-raising operation of the satellite was successfully carried out by firing the satellite’s LAM (liquid apogee motor) engine on March 30. This put the satellite in an oval orbit around the earth.
The mission life of the spacecraft was planned for about 10 years. The satellite was expected to facilitate a significantly fortified communication network for the defence and other security personnel posted in the remotest corners and forward border posts of the country.
It will also provide a platform for developing technologies such as demonstration of 6-metre S-Band unfurlable antenna, hand-held ground terminals and network management techniques that could be useful in satellite-based mobile communication applications.
