Indian Satellite to be Launched on Thursday

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 10, 2003

Indian Satellite to be Launched on Thursday

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India's multipurpose satellite, INSAT-3A, would be blasted into space on Thursday on board the European Ariane-5 rocket after a technical snap in the spacecraft,that forced called off Wednesday's mission by a day.

The launch of INSAT-3A from the French Guyanese spaceport of Kourou in South America has now been rescheduled between 0419 AM and 0500 AM international standard time on Thursday, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced in Bangalore, 2060 kilometers south of here.

According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), the launch was called off after it was observed that the signal strength from oneof the two telemetry transmitters was "less than normal" during final checks midway through the two and a half hours countdown.

As the anomaly could not be set right before the close of launch window, ISRO said, the launch campaign was called off for the day after ISRO notified European space consortium Arianespace for additional satellite verifications prior to the start-up of the fueling activity with Ariane-5's cryogenic core stage.

ISRO said on Wednesday evening that after extensive simulationsand careful analysis by its experts at Kourou and in India, the 2958-kilogram satellite, which has a mission lift of 12 years, hasnow been cleared for the launch.

INSAT-3A was originally scheduled to be launched in mid-February this year but it was delayed due to mishap on Dec. 11, last year, when a souped-up version of Ariane-5 veered off course shortly after lift-off and had to be destroyed by the ground control.

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