Comments
New Space India Ltd (NSIL) plans to undertake its second demand-driven satellite mission GSAT-20 (renamed as GSAT-N2), a high-throughput Ku-band satellite, in the second quarter of this year. This will be launched aboard Falcon-9 under a launch service contract between NSIL and the US-based aerospace company SpaceX. The mission will meet the broadband communication needs of India.
Falcon-9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. The Falcon-9 rocket’s latest launch was on Tuesday on a Starlink satellite mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
NSIL is a government of India company under the Department of Space and the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The GSAT-20 satellite will be fully owned, operated and funded by NSIL, says a release.
NSIL successfully undertook its first demand-driven satellite mission, GSAT-24, during June 2022, wherein the satellite capacity was fully secured by TataPlay. The GSAT-24 mission was funded by NSIL, which owns and operates 11 communication satellites in orbit.
Coverage of remote areas
The second mission will offer cost-effective Ka-Ka band HTS capacity to meet broadband, IFMC, and cellular backhaul service needs. The bulk of the HTS capacity onboard the GSAT-20 satellite has been secured by Indian service providers.
GSAT-20’s Ka-Ka band HTS capacity with 32 beams offers pan-India coverage, including Andaman & Nicobar, and Lakshadweep iIslands.
Weighing 4,700 kg, it offers HTS capacity of nearly 48 gbps. The satellite has been specifically designed to meet the service needs of remote/unconnected regions, the release said.
Currently, ISRO’s LVM3 rocket is capable of placing only 4,000 kg mass into geostationary transfer orbit while Falcon-9 has nearly double the capacity.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.