ISRO claims total success for GSAT-11
December 11, 2018
By Chris Forrester
India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) says its massive and heaviest-ever GSAT-11 satellite has arrived at its geostationary orbit (at 36,000 kms) and with its all-important solar panels and reflectors correctly deployed.
ISRO says that four orbit-raising manoeuvres were carried out over the recent weekend, following the launch by an Ariane rocket on Dec 5th.
The space agency said in a statement that the orbit-raising manoeuvres were performed by firing the satellite’s propulsion system for a cumulative duration of more than four hours.
“Finally home! The communication satellite has been positioned in its designated geostationary orbit with final orbit-raising manoeuvre… Solar panels and reflectors have been successfully deployed,” the space agency added.
ISRO’s engineers and technicians now have full control of the satellite at the agency’s Master Control Facility at Hassan, in Karnataka.
The 5,854-kg GSAT-11 will provide high data rate connectivity to users of the Indian mainland and islands through 32 user beams in Ku-band and eight hub beams in Ka-band, the space agency said.
“GSAT-11 will boost the broadband connectivity to rural and inaccessible regions of the country,” said ISRO.
The satellite weights 5854 kgs and carries 40 transponders (32 Ka-band and 8 Ku-band) and which between them are capable of handling 16 Gb/s throughput.