INSAT-1A satellite 41st Launch Day: The Indian communications satellite INSAT-1A was launched on April 10, 1982 as part of the Indian National Satellite System or INSAT-1 programme. This year, April 10 commemorates the forty-one anniversary of the launch of the satellite.
NASA reports that the INSAT-1 programme included two three-axis stabilised spacecraft in geostationary orbit, namely INSAT-1A and INSAT-1B, as well as numerous ground stations throughout India.
Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the founder of the Indian Space Program, was a brilliant visionary. He conceived of an Indian satellite for telecommunications and television objectives as early as 1964. Therefore, India joined INTELSAT in 1965, which is an intergovernmental consortium that owns and operates a constellation of communications satellites that provide international broadcast services. Dr. Sarabhai presented the paper “INSAT: A Development Strategy” at the National Conference on Electronics held in Bombay in 1970. Applications as diverse as Railways, Defense, Aviation, and Computer Data Handling.
In our country, the need for data transmission and interconnection of large computer facilities has not yet arisen. On the other hand, it is conceivable that such requirements will arise for interconnecting enormous computers within a timesharing system. Such communications could be managed by the satellite with great efficiency. “INSAT- A strategy for development” is an excerpt from some article:
In the following years, the DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) collaborated with NASA, MIT, General Electric, and Hughes Aircraft Corporation to conduct numerous studies on an Indian broadcasting satellite. All of these investigations led to a great deal of action. The first Experimental Satellite Communication Earth Station (ESCES) became operational in Ahmedabad in 1967. In September of 1969, NASA and DAE signed the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) memorandum of understanding.
The investigations conducted between 1968 and 1970 investigated potential payloads for INSAT satellites. While nearly all studies acknowledged the inclusion of television and telecommunications payloads, the incorporation of meteorological payloads was contested. India intended to gain experience in obtaining and utilising such data through SITE. Before SITE was launched in 1975, the VHRR payload responsible for meteorological earth observations failed aboard the ATS-F satellite. As a result, the use of INSAT satellites for meteorological applications was once again called into doubt. P R Pisharoty, the founder of remote sensing in India, persuaded stakeholders to utilise Met data for an agricultural society such as India.
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ISRO later solicited RFPs for the development of satellites with the following payloads.
The American companies Hughes Aircraft Corporation (HAC) and Ford Aerospace Communication Corporation (FACC) submitted proposals. Separately, experts from ESA, COMSAT, and the INSAT-1 Space Segment Project Office evaluated the proposals. Technical experts from the Project Office, Department of Telecommunications (DOT), Doordarshan (national television), AIR, and India Meteorology Department (IMD) ultimately chose FACC to receive the contract for the INSAT-1A and INSAT-1B satellites. Thus, the INSAT-1 series was born.
Each of the four INSAT-1 satellites was launched on a separate launch vehicle. In September 1982, the INSAT-1A satellite failed after a series of problems post-launch in April 1982. The Department of Space (DOS) was compensated by Insurance Companies for the complete loss of a satellite. INSAT-1B’s initial deployment was problematic. After rectifying the issue, the spacecraft lasted longer than its original seven-year lifespan. INSAT-1C also failed, whereas INSAT-1D was a complete triumph. INSAT-1 and APPLE assisted ISRO in the development of INSAT-2 and all subsequent satellites.