ISRO hooked to Ariane-5 lift-off with Antrix-built satellite
20 Dec 2008
The countdown has started for the lift-off of the Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, which is carrying the Indian-built European satellite W2M along with Eutelsat's Hot Bird 9 satellite for broadcasting services.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is expected to have made a profit of $40 million (Rs200 crore) from the supply of the W2M satellite to satellite operator Eutelsat.
The W2M satellite, built by ISRO's Antrix Corporation under the ISRO-EADS Astrium alliance, also signals the Indian space agency's foray into the satellite-manufacturing market.
Building W2M for satellite operator Eutelsat will be a major milestone for ISRO. The European space consortium Arianespace is all set to launch the satellite over the weekend.
The countdown for the launch of Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, South America, early on Sunday has already begun.
The rocket will carry the Indian-built European satellite W2M along with Eutelsat's Hot Bird 9 satellite for broadcasting services, ISRO sources said.
The 3,462-kg W2M, designed and built at the satellite centre in Bangalore for $80 million (Rs400 crore), is the first and heaviest satellite built by Antrix under a commercial contract with Eutelsat.
The satellite took 26 months to build and was shipped to Kourou from Bangalore in mid-October.
ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said. Nair and a seven-member ISRO team of scientists flew to French Guiana on Thursday to witness the launch of Ariane-5 mission of the Arianespace.
The Ariane-5 is set for launch between 02.51 to 03.51 IST, with the lift-off scheduled at 03.31 IST.
ISRO will manage the early positioning of the satellite. A few minutes after the launch, the master control facility (MCF) of ISRO at Hassan will receive the signals from W2M and monitor its orbital path till it is inserted into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) around the Earth.
The entire flight duration is likely to be 32 minutes up to final deployment, 36,000 km above the Earth.
