NEW DELHI – Indian space scientists and engineers are making all-outefforts to establish a link with the communication satellite GSAT-6Alaunched on March 29, said an official on Tuesday.

“Efforts are on to establish the communication link with the satellite,” anofficial from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS here.

On Sunday, ISRO admitted that it lost the crucial link with GSAT-6A, twodays after it was launched on board the Geosynchronous Satellite LaunchVehicle (GSLV) from its spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, 80 kmnortheast of Chennai.

The satellite was to be placed in its intended orbit 36,000 km above groundlevel after three orbit-raising manoeuvres from the space agency’s MasterControl Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka, about 180 km from Bengaluru.

The communication teams at the MCF are hopeful to restore the link when the2,000 kg satellite will be closer to them by hovering over India onTuesday, as it orbits around the earth above 36,000 km away for every 20hours a day.

Former ISRO Chairman K. Kasturirangan believes that each glitch in thespace field is dynamic and could not be predicted.

“Nothing is common when it comes to space and each glitch is dynamic andcontemporary,” he told IANS.

ISRO Chairman K. Sivan earlier told IANS that the data available with thespace agency shows that the satellite was “alive” and that restoring thecommunication link was possible.

“We are going through the data meticulously to establish a link with thesatellite,” Sivan had said.

Sivan, however, asserted that the efforts to connect with the satellitewould not affect or delay other ISRO’s projects in any way.

With a life span of 10 years, the satellite, worth over Rs 240 crore, wasmeant to provide a platform for developing technologies that could beuseful in satellite based mobile communication applications.