In the second orbit raising manoeuvre operations conducted today (September 14, 2002) from the Master Control Facility at Hassan, the Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board India’s first exclusive meteorological satellite, METSAT, was successfully fired for 18 minutes. With this operation, which started at 11:28 am, the perigee (nearest point to Earth) of METSAT has been further raised to 34,400 km while the apogee (farthest point to Earth) is at 34,500 km. The inclination of the orbit has been further reduced to 0.3 degree with respect to the equatorial plane. The orbital period of METSAT is now 22 hours 45 minutes.
With this manoeuvre, METSAT which was launched by PSLV-C4 on September 12, 2002, is now very close to its intended geo-synchronous orbit. Further orbital manoeuvres will be carried out in the coming days to achieve the final orbit and to move it to its designated slot at 74 degree East longitude.
All the systems on board the satellite are functioning normally.
