India’s heaviest satellite GSAT-11 to boost net connectivity launched successfully

India's heaviest satellite GSAT-11, that would boost broadband services in the country, was successfully launched by an Arianespace rocket from the French Guiana in the early hours of Wednesday, December 5, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

Blasting off from the Ariane Launch Complex at Kourou, a French territory located along the northeastern coast of South America at 02:07 am (IST), the Ariane-5 vehicle injected GSAT-11 into the orbit in a flawless flight lasting about 33 minutes.

"ISRO's heaviest and most-advanced high throughput communication satellite GSAT-11 was successfully launched from the Spaceport in French Guiana during the early hours today," the Indian space agency said.

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, it said.

".....the heaviest, largest and most powerful satellite ever built by India is successfully launched by Ariane-5 today," ISRO Chairman K Sivan said soon after the launch, describing the GSAT-11 as the "richest space asset" for India.

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

It is a next generation "high throughput" communication satellite configured around ISRO's I-6K Bus, and has a designed lifetime of more than 15 years.

Post-separation, ISRO's Master Control Facility at Hassan, in Karnataka, took over the command and control of GSAT-11 and found its health parameters normal, the space agency said in a statement.

The satellite is initially placed in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit and will be raised to the Geostationary Orbit (36,000 km above the equator) through phase-wise orbit-raising manoeuvres in the days ahead, using its on-board propulsion systems.

GSAT-11 will be positioned at 74-degree east longitude in the geostationary orbit, ISRO said, adding that subsequently, the two solar arrays and four antenna reflectors of the satellite will be deployed in orbit. The satellite will be operational after the successful completion of all in-orbit tests.

According to ISRO, GSAT-11 will provide high data rate connectivity to users of Indian mainland and islands through 32 user beams in Ku-band and 8 hub beams in Ka-band.

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

Stating that GSAT-11 is going to be the "richest space asset" for India, Sivan said ".....it is going to provide something like 16 GBPS data link services to the country." It is the third in a series of four satellites aimed at achieving the government's ambitious target to provide high data connectivity of 100 GBPS in the country under the Digital India Mission, he added.

According to the space agency, GSAT-11 would 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.

The Bharat Net Project aims to enhance the public welfare schemes like e-banking, e-health, e-governance among others.

"Today's successful mission has boosted the confidence of the entire team," Sivan added.

According to ISRO, GSAT-11 will play a vital role in providing broadband services across the country. It will also provide a platform to demonstrate new generation applications.

The satellite with a mission life of 15 years will have 32 user beams (Ku band) and eight hub beams (Ka band) and the throughput data rate of 16 Gbps.

The Indian space agency said the GSAT-11 will be used to meet the increased data demands with high data rates over regions using spot beams.

The satellite will support VSAT terminals and for enterprise network and consumer broadband applications.

"I want to express my deepest gratitude to two very special partners since the beginning of their space ambitions: ISRO and KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute," said Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel in post-launch comments from the Kourou Spaceport.

Israel noted that GSAT-11 was the 22nd ISRO satellite orbited by Arianespace and Ariane-series launchers, tracing the relationship back to India's APPLE small experimental communications spacecraft, which had a liftoff mass of 670-kg. and was lofted in 1981 by an Ariane 1 version.

During its 33 minutes mission, the Ariane 5 rocket deployed first the GSAT-11.

For Arianespace this was its 10th mission in 2018.

Arianespace has one more mission scheduled before year-end, using the Soyuz medium-lift member of its launcher family to orbit the CSO-1 spacecraft for France's DGA (Direction générale de l'armement) defence procurement agency and the French CNES space agency, the space agency said.

In April, ISRO had recalled GSAT-11 from Arianespace's rocket port in French Guiana for further tests, to be on the safe side.

"We are bringing back the GSAT-11 satellite to carry out some tests to be doubly sure of its performance orbiting in the space. There is nothing more to it," said K Sivan, Chairman ISRO.

The GSAT-11 was planned to be launched mid May. The satellite had reached Arianespace’s rocket port in March.

The ISRO's move to call back GSAT-11 for further tests and be doubly sure of its performance may be due to the loss of the recently launched GSAT-6A satellite, soon after it was put into orbit on March 29.

ISRO suspected the failure of the power systems in the satellite for the loss of communication link.

"The satellites are powered by solar panels that charge the onboard batteries. The batteries are fully charged when the satellite is loaded on to the rocket.

"Even if there is a problem with the solar panel, then the battery power should have kicked in. Here the entire power system of the satellite seems to have failed," said one space expert earlier.

According to experts, the power system could have failed due to some short circuiting or arcing resulting in what is known in the space terminology 'loss of lock' or loss of contact with the ground station.

Satellites in space are locked to ground stations for tracking and other purposes.

On March 29, Indian rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) slung GSAT-6A in its intended orbit. From there the satellite was to be taken up further to its orbital slot by firing its onboard motors.

The first orbit raising operation was successfully carried out by firing the onboard motors for around 36 minutes on March 30 morning.

The second orbit raising operation of GSAT-6A satellite was also successful as its motors was fired for about 53 minutes on March 31.

After that, the communication link got snapped.

Sivan thanked Arianespace for making it possible for the ISRO to achieve the launch this year itself.

The Ariane-5 vehicle (Flight VA246) also carried GEO-KOMPSAT-2A for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), along with GSAT-11.

The 3,507.20 kg GEO-KOMPSAT-2A is designed to conduct meteorological and space weather monitoring missions.

Since the launch of India's APPLE experimental satellite on Ariane Flight L03 in 1981, it has orbited 22 satellites under contracts with the Indian space agency, Arianespace said, adding that two more satellites, GSAT-31 and GSAT-30, were in the order book.