CHENNAI, Mar 9:
The stage is set for launch of sixth navigation satellite IRNSS-1F on board the home grown PSLV-C32 rocket from the spaceport of Sriharikota, about 100 km from here, at 1600 hrs tomorrow.
The 54 hr 30 min countdown, which began at 0930 hrs yesterday morning, was progressing smoothly, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sources said today.
The PSLV-C32, in its 34th flight, would lift off from Second Launch Pad at 1600 hrs tomorrow evening. The propellant filling operations in the fourth stage of the vehicle has been completed, the sources added.
About 20 minutes after the lift off, the workhorse launch vehicle PSLV-C32, will inject the 1425 kg IRNSS-1F, in the sub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (sub GTO), with a perigee of 284 km (nearest point to earth) and an apogee of 20,657 km (farthest point to earth) with an inclination of 17.86 deg to the equator.
The sources said IRNSS-1F, with a life span of 12 years, is the sixth navigation satellite of the constellation of seven satellites constituting the IRNSS space segment.
Once the seven satellites were launched into the space, India would join the elite group of nations to have its own navigational system that would be on par with the GPS of the United States.
The last and seventh satellite of this constellation, IRNSS-1G, was also scheduled to be launched by PSLV by the end of this month, to complete the entire Phase 1 IRNSS constellation.
After injection into the preliminary orbit, the two solar panels of IRNSS-1F would be automatically deployed in quick succession and the Master Control Facility at Hassan takes control of the satellite and perform the initial orbit raising manoeuvres consisting of one manoeuvre at perigee and three at apogee using the onboard Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM), to finally place it in the geostationary orbit at 32.5 deg E.
The sources said with the operationalisation of five spacecrafts, proof-of-concept of an independent regional navigational satellite system over India has been demonstrated for the targeted position accuracy of better than 20 m over 24 hrs of the day.
”With the launch and operationalisation of IRNSS-1F, the sixth in the constellation, better position acuracy will be provided”, the sources added.
As in the previous five launches of IRNSS satellites, PSLV-C32 would be using the ?XL? version of PSLV.
This is the 12th time XL configuration would be flown, the earlier 11 being PSLV-C11/Chandrayaan-1, PSLV-C17/GSAT-12, PSLV-C19/RISAT-1, PSLV-C22/IRNSS-1A, PSLV-C25/Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, PSLV-C24/IRNSS-1B, PSLV-C26/IRNSS-1C, PSLV-C27/IRNSS-1D, PSLV-C28/DMC-3, PSLV-C30/ASTROSAT and PSLV-C31 IRNSS-IE missions.
IRNSS-1F’s predecessors, IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E were launched by PSLV-C22, PSLV-C24, PSLV-C26, PSLV-C27 and PSLV-C31 in July 2013, April 2014, October 2014, March 2015 and January 2016 respectively. The configuration of IRNSS-1F is similar to that of IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C 1D and 1E.
IRNSS-1F carries two types of payloads – navigation payload and ranging payload.
The navigation payload of IRNSS-1F will transmit navigation service signals to the users. This payload will be operating in L5-band and S-band.
”A highly accurate Rubidium atomic clock is part of the navigation payload of the satellite”, the sources said, adding, the ranging payload of IRNSS-1F consists of a C-band transponder which facilitates accurate determination of the range of the satellite. The IRNSS-1F also carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser ranging. (UNI)
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