2.2.3. Satellite Communication

The beginning of era of space in the world took place with the sending of artificial satellite- Sputnik in the space on 4th October, 1957. India has placed its own satellites in orbit for communication and surveying of national resources through remote sensing techniques. This has helped in giving telephone connections to each village. Now, a resident of a small village of India can talk via mobile or satellite phone from his home to his relative or friend sitting in anywhere in the world. Artificial satellites, now, are successfully deployed in the earth’s orbit to connect even the remote corners of the globe with limited onsite verification. These have rendered the unit cost and time of communication invariant in terms of distance. This means it costs the same to communicate over 500 km as it does over 5,000 km via satellite

On the basis of configuration and purposes, satellite system in India can be grouped into two: Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) and Indian Remote Sensing Satellite System (IRS). The INSAT is a multipurpose satellite system for telecommunication, meteorological observation and for various other data and programmes. Established in 1983 with commissioning of INSAT-1B, it initiated a major revolution in India’s communications sector and sustained the same later. INSAT space segment consists of 24 satellites out of which 10 are in service (INSAT-3A, INSAT- 4B, INSAT-3C, INSAT-3E, KALPANA-1, INSAT-4A, INSAT-4CR,GSAT-8, GSAT-12 and GSAT-10).The

system with a total of 168 transponders in the C, Extended C and Ku-bands provides services to telecommunications, television broadcasting, weather forecasting, disaster warning and Search and Rescue operations2.

The IRS satellite system became operational with the launching of IRS-IA in March 1988 from Vaikanour in Russia. India has also developed her own Launching Vehicle PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle). These satellites collect data in several spectral bands and transmit them to the ground stations for various uses. The National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) at Hyderabad

2 For complete list of Indian Communication Satellites, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_satellites and http://www.isro.org/satellites/allsatellites.aspx

provides facilities for acquisition of data and its processing. These are very useful in the management of natural resources.