Bangalore, Sep 24 (IANS) India’s advanced communication satellite will be launched Sep 29 on-board Ariane-V rocket from the European space port at Kourou in French Guiana, the Indian space agency said here Monday.
“The 3.4-tonne heavy satellite (GSAT-10) has been integrated with the Ariane-V rocket along with Astra-2F spacecraft of SES as co-passenger for the launch Sep 29 at 2.48 a.m. IST,” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement.
Astra-2F belongs to the Luxembourg-based leading satellite operator SES. A minor snag detected Sep 15 had forced the European Space Agency (Arianespace) to postpone the launch of the twin satellites by seven days from Sep 22.
The cost of the GSAT-10, including its launch and insurance, is Rs.750 crore (over $135 million). It has a 15-year life span.
The Indian satellite, carrying 30 transponders will be injected 31 minutes after lift-off into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.
“After the satellite is injected into the elliptical geo-transfer orbit, ISRO’s master control facility at Hassan (180 km from Bangalore) will take control of it and perform the orbit raising manoeuvers…,” the statement said.
The transponders include 12 in normal C-band, six in lower extended C-band and 12 Ku-band and a GPS (global positioning system) aided Geo-augmented navigation (Gagan) payload operating in L1 and L5 bands.
As a two-way device, a transponder receives signals over a range of uplink frequencies and re-transmits them on a different set of downlink frequencies to receivers on earth without changing the content (voice, data or pictures) of the received signals.
GSAT-10 will augment the communication transponders’ capacity to 198 from 168 in the Indian satellite (INSAT) system.
Incidentally, GSAT-10 will be the second satellite after GSAT-8 to carry the Gagan payload for providing navigation services to airlines and ships. The Ku-band transponder will also help in accurately pointing ground antennas towards the satellite.
“The satellite’s solar panels and antennas will be deployed soon after it is placed into the geostationary orbit using its propulsion system in a three-step approach,” the space agency said.
