April 25, 2007
On the potentially historic day when astronomers announced what could be one of the greatest and most meaningful discoveries in the near-universe (and the day that sadly saw the loss of 1966 hero Alan Ball :( ) Yahoo have to poke fun at it by linking it to a story about 'Little Green Men'. Shame on them.
European astronomers have detected what they say is ...
Is everything just a joke to the media?
by BGonaSTICKOn the potentially historic day when astronomers announced what could be one of the greatest and most meaningful discoveries in the near-universe (and the day that sadly saw the loss of 1966 hero Alan Ball :( ) Yahoo have to poke fun at it by linking it to a story about 'Little Green Men'. Shame on them.
European astronomers have detected what they say is ...
April 15, 2007
After a month of in-space testing and commissioning work, the Insat-4B satellite is now fully operational, and will soon begin broadcasting direct-to-home (DTH) programming to the vast Indian market.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said that Insat-4B had now reached its target orbital location of 93.5 degrees East, and is ready to go to work.
Insat-4B was launched on 12th March from the European Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana aboard an Ariane-5 ECA rocket.
“Within one month, we have made it fully operational," ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters in Bangalore.
Insat-4B is the second satellite in the Insat-4 series. Weighing 3,025 kg at lift-off, it is designed to supplement both the existing C-band and Ku-band communications capacity for the area. It carries 24 transponders, 12 C-band and 12 Ku-band, and has an expected life span of around 12 years.
Insat-4B joins the in-orbit Insat-4A whilst Insat-4CR (a direct replacement for Insat-4C, destroyed on launch in 2006) is now scheduled for launch “by the middle of this year†Madhavan Nair confirmed.
Insat-4B and Insat-4CR will allow ISRO to fully meet its commitments for clients' DTH transponder capacity.
Among ISRO’s major clients are DTH providers Reliance's Blue Magic, Bharti, Doordarshan's DD Direct and Sun TV's Sun Direct. All are in the race to acquire as many of the 24 Ku-band transponders on Insat-4B and Insat-4CR as possible.
These DTH providers are expected to take between 7-10 transponders each, said industry analysts. Each transponder is capable of providing between 15 and 30 channels depending on its frequency capacity. There are only two satellites with a pan-Indian footprint capable of providing the Ku bandwidth required for DTH services: Insat-4A and SES Global's NSS-6. Both satellites, however, have been fully booked by TataSky (all 12 on Insat-4A), DD Direct (five on NSS-6) and Dish TV (seven on NSS-6).
ISRO’s Insat-4B now operational
by BGonaSTICK
