India's indigenous Insat 2D geostationary-orbiting communications satellite was abandoned on 5 October, three days after suffering a power loss, thought to have been caused by a short circuit which reduced power levels to 30%, making systems inoperable.
Another of the country's spacecraft, the Indian Remote Sensing satellite (IRS 1D), was left stranded in a lower-than-planned orbit on 29 September after a partial failure of the country's Polar Satellite Launch vehicle (Flight International, 8-14 October). The orbit altitude has since been raised slightly.
The failure of the 24-transponder Insat 2D, which had been launched by an Ariane booster in June 1996, caused disruption to communications services in India, forcing the closure of equity trading at the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai.
Communications services have instead been transferred to the Insat 2A-C craft.
Source: Flight International