Sep 6 1982
From The Space Library
India declared its first commercial satellite, INSAT 1, "dead" because its fuel supply had run out and it failed to respond to ground commands 150 days after an April 10 launch. Built by Ford Aerospace to Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) specifications and launched from Cape Canaveral, INSAT was the first operational spacecraft equipped for telecommunications, direct-broadcast television, and weather. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government had planned to use INSAT to broadcast the Asian Games scheduled for New Delhi.
ISRO was reported "caught off guard" by the amount of fuel it had used to correct early malfunctions. Soon after reaching orbit, INSAT's C-band antenna jammed. Fuel was wasted trying to free it, as well as to deploy the malfunctioning solar sail designed to collect energy from the Sun's rays. Failure of the sail would have reduced INSAT's life from 7 to 2 1/2 years. Fuel-supply checks might have been inaccurate.
Because INSAT was built to ISRO specifications, blame would probably fall on Satish Dhawan, head of India's space program, who had argued for a multifunction satellite to bring radio and television to thousands of remote villages and give India international telecommunications links. He considered mass communications the best hope for progress in a country with a 36% literacy rate. India's press hinted that the system had tried for too many functions.
A second India communications satellite had been planned for shuttle launch next July as a backup for INSAT, and the government would have to decide how to proceed. Leasing two transponders on INTELSAT's Indian Ocean satellite as a cost of $16 million per year to partly cover the loss of INSAT would not offer India the prestige of using its own satellite during the games. (W Post, Sept 8/82, A-21; Nature, Sept. 23/82, 293)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
