Bangalore: India's space scientists deployed multi-purpose satellite INSAT-3A's solar panels and the two antennas, as well as the solar sail and put the satellite in its final three-axis stabilised mode.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on April 16 the solar array and the antennas of INSAT-3A, launched by the European Ariane-5 rocket last week, were deployed by commanding from master control facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka.

The city-headquartered ISRO said in a statement that the sun-tracking solar array of INSAT-3A has an area of 26.6 square miles and it is designed to generate 3.1 KW of power in orbit.

The satellite has two deployable antennas and one fixed antenna to carry out various transmit and receive functions.

The three-axis stabilisation of INSAT-3A was carried out. In this configuration, the spacecraft would be locked to earth continuously through the optical sensors, and would maintain the correct attitude to look at the earth in a stable manner.

The momentum onboard the satellite were switched on and stabilised to the nominal speed of 4,500 revolutions per minute to provide gyroscopic stiffness and facilitate 3-axis stabilisation, the space agency said.

The deployment of the solar sail/boom on the North side of the satellite was carried shortly after three-axis stabilisation of the spacecraft. With this, ISRO said, all the deployment operations have been completed.

The health of INSAT-3A is normal. It is now located at 87.4 degree East longitude and is moving towards its designated orbital slot of 93.5 degree East longitude, ISRO said.

PTI