Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully launches India's most advanced communications satellite into space
PTC News Desk: Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched India's most advanced communications satellite into space from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA.
On Tuesday, at one minute past midnight, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its most sophisticated communications satellite, which will provide broadband services in remote areas and in-flight Internet in passenger aircraft, on its 396th flight into outer space aboard Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
"Launch was successful," stated Radhakrishnan Durairaj, Chairman and Managing Director of New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO.
GSAT N-2 or GSAT 20, a 4,700 kg fully commercial satellite, was launched from Space Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX hired the launch pad from the United States Space Force, a unique branch of the country's military forces established in 2019 to defend its space assets.
Dr. S. Somanath, Chairman of ISRO, stated during the launch, "The mission life of GSAT-20 is 14 years and the ground infrastructure is ready to serve the satellite".
This is the first time ISRO has launched a satellite on a SpaceX rocket via its commercial arm, New Space India Limited (NSIL). This is also the first time ISRO has created a satellite that only uses the sophisticated Ka band frequency, a range of radio frequencies between 27 and 40 gigahertz (GHz), allowing the satellite to have a larger bandwidth.
India requested a special launch, and there were no co-passenger satellites on the flight.
A standard Falcon 9 B-5 rocket, 70 metres long and weighing approximately 549 tonnes, was employed for the satellite launch. It has been developed as a two-stage rocket, which is a launch vehicle with two different stages that produce propulsion consecutively to achieve orbital velocity. The rocket can carry up to 8,300 kg to geosynchronous transfer orbit and 22,800 kg to low earth orbit. The first stage was successfully recovered at approximately 8 minutes into the flight, marking SpaceX's 371st recovery.
- With inputs from agencies
