Isro launches GSAT-6A communication satellite

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Thursday launched its latest communication satellite, GSAT-6A, which will provide mobile communication to India through multi beam coverage facility, on board GSLV-F08 from here.

The satellite, weighing 415.6 ton and measuring 49.1-metre-tall, blasted off from the second launch pad at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre here, 110 km from Chennai, at 4.56 pm, as scientists erupted in cheer.

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The satellite will be put into orbit around 17 minutes after it took from here.

Isro said the satellite will provide services for defence purposes and will not add any transponder capacity for general uses.

GSAT-6A's predecessor GSAT-6 has been in orbit providing communication services since its launch almost three years ago in August 2015.

Isro's GSLV-F08 rocket launched the satellite, marking its 12th flight sixth flight with indigenous Cryogenic upper stage.

GSAT-6A, like its predecessor GSAT-6 is a high-power S-band communication satellite built on I-2K satellite bus with a mission life of about ten years.

Another high point of the launch is the induction of high-thrust Vikas engine and electromechanical actuation system.

The launch is also crucial since Isro will be validating the high-thrust Vikas engine and other systems which would be eventually used in the future missions, including India's second moon mission, Chandrayaan-II.

The satellite will also provide a platform for developing technologies such as demonstration of 6 metre S-Band Unfurlable Antenna for communication purposes, hand-held ground terminals and network management techniques that could be useful in satellite based mobile communication applications, the space agency said.

Isro is preparing for the launch of a navigation satellite in the 2018-2019 financial year and is also planning to send its second mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-II, in October this year.