BENGALURU: SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket early Tuesday lifted off smoothly from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying India’s Gsat-20 or Gsat-N2, a high-throughput satellite that is designed to elevate communication infrastructure.
While the launch happened at 12.01 as planned, details of whether SpaceX managed to place Gsat-20 into a desired orbit was not available at the time of going to print. As per the mission profile, Gsat-20 was expected to separate a few seconds after 12.38am.
Weighing 4,700kg and engineered for a 14-year mission, the Gsat-20 represents a significant leap in satellite communication technology and as per Isro, the cutting-edge Ka-band high-throughput satellite is designed to transform broadband and in-flight connectivity across the region.
TOI had reported in the first week of Jan that India’s Space PSU NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) will launch Gsat-20 on Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket later this year.
This is NSIL’s second demand-driven communications satellite and is primarily aimed at meeting India’s growing broadband connectivity needs.
NSIL will fully own, operate and fund the satellite, which can provide up to 48Gbps of capacity across 32 beams covering all of India including the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Islands.
NSIL CMD Radhakrishnan D had told TOI earlier: “SpaceX was selected against an RFP we had floated last year. There were other bidders too. This marks a new beginning as we launch on a US rocket from their soil. The present agreement is only for this launch and we will look at future requirements as and when we need.”
This is the first time that NSIL — or even Isro for that matter — used a US launcher. Isro and the PSU have earlier made use of the services of France’s Arianespace. NSIL looks for services abroad when the weight of the satellite is higher than the capacity of Indian launch vehicles.
As part of the Indian govt’s space sector reforms announced in 2020, NSIL is mandated to build, launch, own and operate satellites that address service needs on demand.
In June 2022, NSIL successfully launched its first demand-driven satellite mission, GSAT-24 (now called GSAT-N1), which is fully leased by TataPlay. “While this is also a dedicated satellite, it is not meant for a single company. There are multiple players in the fray,” an official told TOI.