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.