French firm delays Insat launch

Bangalore: India's direct-to-home (DTH) revolution will have to wait a little longer. The launch of Insat-4A has been delayed due to heavy schedule of French launch company Arianespace and is expected to be in orbit only in December.
Primarily a telecom satellite, with 12 ku band and 12 C-band transponders, and weighing around 3,200 kg, Insat-4A is the first in the series of fourth-generation satellites being planned to meet a growing demand for DTH satellite link telecast applications.
It was initially scheduled for launch in the first-half of this year, but has been consistently delayed. "It was scheduled to be launched in August-September and then put off to November.
It now appears the launch will be pushed further. I will be talking to Arianespace in the next few days and a date will be finalised," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair said.
The exact date is expected to be announced by mid-September. ISRO sources said the satellite, developed by ISRO, is ready.
"Tests have been conducted and it is ready for shipment to Kourou in French Guiana," sources said. However, ISRO is not worried.
Its relationship with Arianespace goes back over two decades when it launched Apple, an experimental geo-stationary satellite in 1981.
Since then, the French company has been successfully launching Indian satellites, especially the Insat 2 and 3 series, with agreements signed for the launch of 4A and 4B, which are similar in function.
"The delay was due to some technical problems. The company, which has satellites from other countries, had to change schedule," sources said.
The Insat-4 series has a set of seven satellites from 4A to 4G, with 4D being a spare.
All satellites are planned to be launched by 2007, by which time a total of about 250 transponders will be in space across various bands catering to a demand of up to 11 Gbps capacity.
The number has been decided based on the demand and requirement put forth by various users and departments.