GSAT-19, 11 satellites: Game changers in communications
4 Jun 2017 4:55 PM GMT
ISRO's upcoming endeavours -- the GSAT-19 and the GSAT-11 satellites -- are potential game changers and can revolutionise communications by empowering a digital India and providing Internet services and streaming like never before.
ISRO is undertaking a mega experiment at India's rocket port at Sriharikota: a spanking new monster rocket is all set to launch an altogether new class of communications satellite.
Tapan Misra, director of the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, where the GSAT-19 satellite has been designed, calls it "a game changer communications satellite for India".
If it succeeds, the single GSAT-19 satellite will be equivalent to having a constellation of 6-7 of the older variety of communication satellites in space.
Today out of a constellation of 41 in-orbit Indian satellites, 13 are communication satellites.
"A truly 'made in India' satellite that will empower a digital India that is in the making," says Misra of GSAT-19.
India's heaviest rocket till date, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III (GSLV Mk-III) that weighs equivalent to the weight of five fully-loaded Boeing Jumbo Jets or as much as 200 fully grown elephants is attracting all the attention!
This is India's rocket of the future as it will undoubtedly be human rated to carry Indian astronauts likely to be named 'gaganauts or vyomanauts'.
'GSLV Mk III to open up 4-ton satellite launch mrkt for India'
The heavy-lift GSLV Mark III rocket, slated to be launched by space agency ISRO tomorrow, would open up opportunities for India to launch 4-ton class of satellites of foreign countries, according to a senior space scientist.
Tomorrow's launch of the first developmental flight of the rocket is a "great milestone" as ISRO is almost doubling the capacity to launch satellite from 2.2-2.3 tons to 3.5-4 tons, former ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan said.
"Today if India has to launch communication satellites beyond 2.3 tons, we have to go abroad (to launch them). We (will) have self-reliance in launching communication satellites (once GSLV Mk III becomes operational), and also we will be able to attract foreign customers," he said. "It's rather a simpler vehicle, and a vehicle with better payload fraction. And it's going to be future workhorse vehicle (of ISRO)," he said.
Radhakrishnan was closely associated with the GSLV Mk III programme, approved in 2000, as director of VSSC (Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre) and then chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation. He is now an adviser to ISRO.
Next Story
