The Master Control Facility of the Indian Space Research Organisation on Monday placed the Insat-3A in geo-stationary orbit at a distance of 860km perigee and 36,000km apogee from the earth.
In the third and final stage of orbit-raising operation, conducted at 0939 IST, the manoeuvre was completed by firing the 440 Newton liquid apogee motor on board the satellite, ISRO sources told rediff.com in Bangalore.
"The satellite has achieved an orbital period of 23 hours and 48 minutes and is visible to the MCF at Hassan in Karnataka," one official said.
"It is moving towards its geo-stationary orbital slot with the planned drift rate of 2 degree per day. It is set to reach its orbital slot of 93.5 degree east longitude in the next five days," he said.
The satellite had 1,603kg of propellant at the time of its injection into the geo-synchronous orbit by Ariane-5 launch vehicle on April 10.
After orbit-raising operations, the satellite has 505kg of propellant left, sufficient to arrest the drift and park it at its designated orbital slot.
The fuel will also enable the spacecraft to remain in its orbit and control its orientation during its lifespan of 12 years.
Meanwhile, the MCF has decided to deploy the satellite's solar array and the antenna on Tuesday. All subsystems on the satellite are working normally, the sources added.
