New Delhi:
Minutes after the INSAT-3D satellite was launched last month to help forecast weather and predict natural disasters, scientists at the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) were in nail-biting agony.
The satellite, which weighs nearly 2000 kilos and costs 200 crores, exhibited "anomalous behaviour" - it started spinning at a much higher rate and then all communication between the satellite and the Master Control Facility at Hasan in Karnataka "was lost for a short duration," said ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan.
Not being able to talk to the satellite, which was launched using a French rocket in French Guiana, means it could have spun out of control.
ISRO says it used "contingency measures" to move the satellite back onto its planned orbit.
Grateful scientists today told NDTV that the satellite is "healthy and has reached its final resting place above Earth" and will be functional in a week, most likely.
This bird in the sky will help in issuing early warnings about storms and cloud bursts. The India- made satellite also carries special equipment which measures atmospheric humidity and temperature to help forecast heavy rainfall events.
Experts say it could have helped forecast the catastrophic rainfall that ravaged Uttarakhand in July, leaving thousands of people dead and thousands others missing.