The Indian space agency is hoping to mate the country's fourth regional
navigation satellite around March 19, after replacing a faulty transmitter on
Monday, said a senior official.
"The
new transmitter is expected to be fixed in the satellite and tested. Then the
fully assembled satellite will be mated with the rocket," M.Y.S. Prasad,
director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) told IANS over phone.
The
transmitter from Isro Satellite Centre, located in Bangalore and that is part
of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), reached SDSC on Sunday.
After
mating the satellite with the rocket, a full system check would be carried out
and then the rocket launch date would be fixed.
Prasad
said if everything goes well then the space agency is planning to launch the
rocket towards the end of March.
The
1,425kg satellite - Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1D) -
was supposed to be launched on the evening of March 9 by an Indian rocket
called Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL).
The
Isro on March 4, however, deferred the launch after it found one of the
telemetry transmitters in the IRNSS-1D not working properly.
Subsequently,
the satellite was dismounted from the rocket to attend to the technical glitch.
It is
the first time in Isro's history that a satellite had to be dismounted from a
rocket due to a problem in it.
Prior
to this incident, satellites have been dismounted from a rocket but due to
other problems.
India
has so far launched three regional navigational satellites as part of a
constellation of seven satellites to provide accurate position information
service to users across the country and the region, extending up to an area of
1,500km.
Though
the full system comprises nine satellites - seven in orbit and two on the
ground as stand-by - the navigation services could be made operational with
four satellites, Isro officials had said.
Each
satellite costs around Rs. 150 crores and the PSLV-XL version rocket costs
around Rs. 130 crores. The seven rockets would involve an outlay of around Rs.
910 crores.
The
entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is planned to be completed by
2015.
The
first satellite IRNSS-1A was launched in July 2013, the second IRNSS-1B in
April 2014 and the third on October 16, 2014.
Once
the regional navigation system is in place, India need not be dependent on
other platforms.
