The first signals from INSPIRESat-1, the student satellite launched aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-52 (PSLV C-52/EOS-04) mission on Monday, indicate that the satellite is 'healthy' and in orbit as planned, officials of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) here said.
The first set of signals were received at the Laboratory of Atmospheric Science and Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, US, shortly after 7 a.m. followed by the ground station at IIST half an hour later, indicating that the solar panels and antenna were successfully deployed. IIST also successfully communicated with the satellite on Monday evening.
The two scientific payloads aboard the 8.1 kg satellite, meant to study ionosphere dynamics and the sun's coronal heating processes, are expected to be 'switched on' in a few days.
''We all cheer when a satellite is launched successfully. But the real story starts after that. We have to receive data from it continuously, analyse it, archive it and ensure that papers are published,'' IIST registrar Y. V. N. Krishna Murthy said.
INSPIRESat-1 is part of a constellation of satellites planned under the International Space Program in Research and Education (INSPIRE) involving the Small-spacecraft Systems and Payload Centre (SSPACE) at IIST, LASP, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and National Central University (NCU), Taiwan.
On board the PSLV C-52, INSPIRESAt-1 shared space with the main payload, the 1,710 kg radar imaging satellite EOS-04, and a technology demonstrator satellite, INS-TD. The mission was successfully launched from Sriharikota at 5.59 a.m. on Monday.
