Divya Gandhi

Bangalore: Training their gaze on India’s maiden moon launch on Wednesday are antennae at Mauritius, Brunei, Biak (Indonesia) and Bearslake (Russia), Goldstone, Maryland, Hawaii (U.S.), Brazil, Russia, Lucknow, Sriharikota, Thiruvananthapuram, Port Blair and, of course, the giant antennae at Byalalu, which will feed ISTRAC with telemetric information on the health of Chandrayaan.

Even as all eyes are on Sriharikota, it is the Bangalore’s industrial suburb, Peenya, which is the nerve centre of the operation. At the space control centre here, scientists prepare to receive data from ground stations around the world on Chandrayaan.

ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network will get data within minutes of Chandrayaan’s launch from 15 ground stations from as far as Brazil and Hawaii, said ISTRAC Director S.K. Shivakumar.

“Within 19 minutes of its launch the spacecraft separates completely from the launch vehicle and begins its independent orbital life, which is when the tracking will begin,” said B.R. Guruprasad, PRO of ISRO.

“For the first 48 hours we will be receiving telemetry data on the health of the satellite from all these stations. Typically these stations have 10 metre antennae which are sufficient to track the satellite at this stage,” said O. Chiranjeevi, Group Director, ISTRAC. The antennae at Byalalu will begin to pick up signals within six hours after its launch, said Dr. Shivakumar. The Indian Deep Space Network Facility includes two antennae – a 32 metre one and an 18 metre one. However, the true work of these antennae will begin later once the satellite reaches a distance of over one lakh kilometres in a couple of days, said Mr. Chiranjeevi.