Bangalore: In the first critical orbit raising manoeuvre, India's multi-mission satellite INSAT-3A was placed in the "intermediate orbit" on April 11, a day after it was hurled into space by the European rocket Ariane-5.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the INSAT-3A perigee (closest point to the earth) was raised from 860 kms at the time of launch to 11,500 kms, by firing the 440 Newton liquid apogee motor (LAM) on board the spacecraft.

LAM was fired for 73 minutes and 42 seconds by commanding the satellite from the master control facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka, which is guiding the INSAT-3A after taking control of it soon after the launch.

The apogee (farthest point from earth) remains at 36,000 kms above the equator, ISRO said in a statement.

It said all the systems on board the satellite are functioning normally.

The satellite had gone out of visibility of MCF at 3.20 pm (IST) on April 10 and came within its visibility at 2.16 am (IST) on April 11 morning, the statement said. It would go out of MCF visibility again at about 1.44 pm (IST) on April 11 afternoon and come within its visibility at 7 am (IST) on April 12.

All systems on board the satellite are functioning normally, the statement said.

The second orbit manoeuvre is planned around 1.00 pm (IST) on April 11.

INSAT-3A was successfully launched by Ariane-5 from the French Guyanese spaceport of Kourou in South America in a textbook launch. The satellite would give a big push to the country's space-based broadcasting, communication and weather monitoring services.

PTI