New Delhi: India's advanced communication satellite, GSAT-8, has been put into its final orbital configuration, and is now pointing towards the Earth on a continuous basis, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said. The satellite will have an orbital period of 23 hours 45 minutes.

GSAT-8 has now reached its final orbital position of 55 deg East where it is co-located with the INSAT-3E satellite.

The satellite's orbit has a perigee of 35,543 km, apogee of 35,770 km and an orbital inclination of 0.04 deg with respect to the equatorial plane, an ISRO press release said.

The satellites solar arrays have been deployed and they are tracking the Sun and generating electrical power. These solar arrays are designed to generate 6,240 W of electrical power.

Two large dual grid Ku-band antennae have been opened and are pointing towards the Earth.

The GSAT-8 was launched on 21 May from Kourou, French Guiana by Arianspace onboard their Ariane-5 launcher .

In-orbit Testing (IOT) of 24 Ku-band transponders of GSAT-8 is scheduled to begin on 1 June 2011 and the satellite is expected to be ready for service in about a month.

Testing of the GAGAN navigational payload will be conducted from the new Navigation Control Centre at Kundanahalli near Bangalore, the release added.

GSAT-8 is a high-power communication satellite that is being inducted into the INSAT system. Weighing about 3100 kg at lift-off, it is carrying 24 transponders in Ku band and a two-channel GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) payload operating in L1 and L5 bands.

The Ku-band transponders will augment the capacity in the INSAT system. Among other things, they will augment Direct-to-Home (DTH) and radio services by state-run and private operators.