ISRO to launch first satellite on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in August
The satellite will be owned and operated by New Space India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO.
For the first time, Indian space agency ISRO will launch its latest large satellite on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
ISRO Chairman S Somnath announced at the India Space Congress-2024 in New Delhi that the GSAT 20 satellite has been approved. He said it will be sent to the US and launched using a Falcon 9 rocket in mid-August. This will be a dedicated Falcon 9 launch.
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which is about 70 metres in length, has had 358 launches so far and has a very high success rate.
Earlier, India relied on Arianespace to launch its heavy satellites, but now the French rocket has been discontinued and a replacement is still under development.
India’s latest communication satellite, GSAT 20, is a hi-tech heavy-weight satellite weighing 4,700 kg and will have a high throughput capability of 48 Gbps. The satellite, built by ISRO, has 32 spot beams and is designed to cover the whole of India, but with a special emphasis on providing connectivity to Northeast India.
The satellite will be owned and operated by New Space India Ltd (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO.
Mr Somnath said about 80% of the capacity has already been sold to a private company but he did not reveal the identity of the buyer.