
MUMBAI, NOV 18: Major users of satellite services said that they were unaffected by the Leonid meteor shower. The National Stock Exchange NSE, which had informed its members well in advance about a possible disruption in services, was vastly relieved. The entire episode passed off uneventfully, with trading going on as per schedule.
R H Patil, Managing Director of the NSE, told The Indian Express that there was absolutely no damage to its transponders. The NSE trading network is dependent on the two transponders it has leased on Insat 2B. However, some brokers last week reduced their business exposure, following the warning from NSE. The Bombay Stock Exchange also functioned normally, with outstation brokers using the satellite link reporting business as usual.
Iridium, which has the largest satellite constellation in space, also suffered no damage to its 5.5 billion network. Iridium India8217;s Jaydev Raja said, 8220;I have checked with my gateway 8212; to my knowledge none of our satellites have been affected.8221; He admitted there was concern, but the risk was lesser because its satellites were closest to earth on the Low Earth Orbit LEO level, as compared to geo-stationary earth orbit satellites like Insat 2B.
However, the company was well-prepared for such eventualities and had a spare in each of the six planes it had satellites orbiting in, he said. Each of these satellitesmoved round the earth in 100 minutes and in the event of a failure, another satellite could easily take its place. Depending on the type of damage, satellites can also be salvaged with software upgrades while they are in orbit.
Star TV said that none of its channels were affected. 8220;There was always a chance8230;,8221; said a senior executive, 8220;but thankfully, everything is quite safe.8221; The channel, which has four transponders each on Asiasat 1 and Asiasat 2, kept a 1 am to 4 am vigil on its network. Viewers reported ESPN flashed a message at around 1.30 am, that transmission was disturbed due to technical faults. ESPN could not be contacted for comments, either in Delhi or Singapore.