ISRO's Telecommunications Satellite- GSAT30 Successfully Launched

India's telecommunication satellite, GSAT30 was successfully launched from onboard Ariane-5 flight at the Kourou launch base in French Guiana in the early hours of Friday.

GSAT-30, India's first space mission in 2020, was successfully launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) at 2:35 a.m according to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The European rocket Arianespace launched the GSAT-30 satellite for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Eutelsat Konnect satellite for the French telecommunications company Eutelsat.

After a flight lasting 38 minutes 25 seconds, the GSAT-30 separated from the Ariane 5 upper stage in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. Weighing 3357 kg, GSAT-30 will serve as a replacement to ISRO's INSAT-4A spacecraft services with enhanced coverage.

"GSAT-30 has a unique configuration of providing flexible frequency segments and flexible coverage. The satellite will provide communication services to Indian mainland and islands through Ku-band and wide coverage covering Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia through C-band" ISRO Chairman K Sivan said.

The GSAT-30 will provide DTH television services, connectivity to VSATs for ATM, stock-exchange, Television uplinking and Teleport Services, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) and e-governance applications.

"The satellite will also be used for bulk data transfer for a host of emerging telecommunication applications," the ISRO chairman said.

ISRO's Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka took over the command and control of GSAT-30 immediately after its separation from the launch vehicle and preliminary health checks of the satellite revealed its normal health.

Meanwhile Eutelsat Konnect, a new generation satellite will provide telecommunication services across Europe and Africa.