The Indian National Satellite, INSAT-3C, designed and built by ISRO was airlifted from Bangalore at 6.15 am on December 02, 2001 and the satellite reached Cayenne Airport near Kourou, French Guyana at 12.15 pm (IST) yesterday (December 3, 2001). The satellite has been now positioned in the integration facilities at Kourou. In the coming days, the ground checkout equipment will be installed and various tests on the satellite like solar panel and antenna deployment, integrated mechanical and electrical checks, will be carried out.
The satellite is scheduled for launch on board Ariane-4 launch vehicle on January 16, 2002.
INSAT-3C carries 24 C-band transponders, six extended C-band transponders, two S-band broadcast satellite service transponders and mobile satellite service transponders. Once commissioned, the satellite will further augment the present INSAT capacity. INSAT-3C will be positioned at 74-degree east longitude.
It may be noted that INSAT-3C, which was ready in August, was to be launched by an Ariane-5 vehicle of the Arianespace. However due to the failure of one of its Ariane-5 and consequent delay in the follow-on launches, the INSAT-3C launch was put off. Subsequently, Arianespace offered an exclusive Ariane-4 launch vehicle for launching INSAT-3C scheduling it for January 16, 2002.
