An important development went almost unnoticed even as the whole country was watching the live telecast of the Lok Sabha proceedings on the vote of confidence on Tuesday.
All Direct-To-Home (DTH) operators in the country were beaming television signals provided by the country's Indian National Satellite (INSAT) series.
"Gone are the days when we depended on foreign communication satellites for television and radio broadcasting and computer network," Mohan Sundara Rajan, eminent science writer and author of space science related books.
"All television channels beamed by the country's DTH service providers are from our own communication satellites," said Rajan, a chronicler of India's space programmes.
Bhaskara Narayana, Scientific Secretary, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said prominent DTH service providers were now using the INSAT series of satellites.
"But there are a number of service providers waiting on the sidelines to jump into the fray. Once they make their entry, we have to launch another communication satellite to provide them more transponders," said Narayana.
"The scientists of ISRO Satellite Centre Bangalore and the Master Control Facility at Hassan have perfected the technology to kick the old satellites up to the graveyard orbit," said Narayana.
This was done by firing the satellite's motors to push it to a height of 287 km from its GSO by using the extra fuel stored in it at the time of its launch.Narayana said all members of the space club were bound to remove their old satellites to a higher orbit to ensure smooth functioning of other satellites.
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