Bangalore: In the first critical orbit-raising manoeuvre carried out a day after its launch, India's advanced communication satellite, INSAT-3E, was placed in Intermediate Orbit on September 29, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

Commanding the satellite from Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka, the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board the spacecraft was fired for 82 minutes, raising its perigee (closest point to earth) from 649 kms at the time of launch to 14,970 kms, an ISRO statement said.

The apogee (farthest point to earth) remained at 35,900 km and the inclination of the orbit with respect to the equatorial plane has been reduced from seven degrees at the time of launch to 1.9 degrees, it said. The orbital period is 15 hours 30 minutes.

INSAT-3E was successfully launched by European rocket Ariane 5 from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana in the early hours of September 28, giving a boost to telecom and television services.

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

The satellite, it said, had gone out of visibility of MCF at 3 pm yesterday and came within its visibility at 2.24 am (IST) on September 29 morning. It would go out of MCF visibility again at 2 pm this afternoon and come within its visibility at 8.30 am on September 30.

Further orbit raising manoeuvres are planned in the next few days, the statement said.

PTI