India’s most recent communication satellite GSAT-18 was successfully launched on Thursday by a heavy duty rocket of Arianespace from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana. Actually, the launch was scheduled for yesterday, however, postponed by 24 hours due to the bad weather condition at Kourou, a French territory located in the northeastern coast of South America.
Satellite Will make telecommunication services better
India Space Research Organization (ISRO) has created this GSAT-18, motives to serve telecommunications services for the country by strengthening ISRO’s present fleet of 14 operational telecommunication satellites. The European launcher Ariane-5VA-231 blasted off at around 2 AM according to Indian standard time (IST) and injected GSAT-18 just after revolving co-passenger Sky Muster II Muster II satellite for Australian operator nbn (National Broadband Network) in a perfect flight lasting about 32 minutes.
The purely Indian satellite was launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer orbit (GTO) that took about 32 minutes after the lift-off. After the successful launching of this homemade satellite, ISRO announced that GSAT-18 is the 20th satellite from ISRO to be launched by the European space agency.
What qualities are in GSAT-18?
ISRO is developing the new rocket termed GSLV MK III for carrying its heavier satellites, presently is depending on the Ariane-5 rocket. Weighing 3,404 kg at lift-off, GSAT-18 carries 48 communication transponders to provide services in Normal C-band, Upper Extended C- Band and Ku-bands of the frequency spectrum. The officials of ISRO told to media GSAT-18 is specially designed to provide continuity of services on operational satellites in these bands with a mission life of about 15 years,carries Ku-band beacon.
ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar congratulated all the members who made this progressive mission successful, who were watching the launch from the mission control centre. He said “I am really delighted this evening having witnessed another glorious and flawless lift-off of Ariane-5 VA-231 flight that carried GSAT-18 and Sky Muster II successfully. Like on all previous occasions, Arianespace has again provided us a magnificent textbook launch”.
ISRO is in planning to launch more satellites coming years
He further told that the two more satellites GSAT 17 and GSAT 11 were getting ready for the launch by Arianespace during early next year, but we realized both satellites is in an advanced stage. GSAT 17 is impetuous for replacing our satellites, GSAT 11 will be the first generation of the high-throughput satellite of ISRO and both of these launches are crucial for the India Space Programme:, Mr. Kumar said.
