India’s heaviest satellite put into orbit

GSAT-11, India’s heaviest satellite till date, was successfully launched by an Arianespace rocket from French Guiana on December 5. Blasting off from the Ariane Launch Complex at Kourou, a French territory located in South America, the Ariane 5 injected GSAT-11 into the orbit.

According to ISRO, after a 30-minute flight, GSAT-11 separated from the Ariane 5 upper stage in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. The achieved orbit was very close to the intended one.

Weighing about 5,854 kg, GSAT-11 is the heaviest satellite built by ISRO.

GSAT-11 is a next generation high throughput communication satellite configured around ISRO’s I-6K Bus, and has a designed lifetime of 15 years. Post-separation, ISRO’s Master Control Facility in Hassan, Karnataka, took over the command and control of GSAT-11 and found its health parameters normal.

GSAT-11 will provide high data rate connectivity through 32 user beams in Ku-band and 8 hub beams in Ka-band.

Calling the satellite a forerunner in a series of advanced communications satellites with multi-spot beam antenna coverage over Indian mainland and islands, ISRO said GSAT-11 will play a vital role in providing broadband services across the country and also be a platform to demonstrate new-gen applications.

According to ISRO, GSAT-11 will provide high data connectivity to users across India, broadband connectivity to gram panchayats under the BharatNet project and support high data rate applications for enterprise network and consumer broadband applications.