Indian Space Research Organisation’s heavy-lift rocket GSLV-MkIII-D2 blasted off from Sriharikota, in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday carrying India’s latest communication satellite GSAT-29 on board.
The 27-hour countdown for the launch began at 2.50 pm on Tuesday and the rocket blasted off at 5.08 pm from the spaceport at Sriharikota over 100 km from Chennai.
The 3,423 kg GSAT-29 carries Ka and Ku band high throughput transponders intended to meet the communication requirements of users, including in the North East and in Jammu and Kashmir.
The satellite is scheduled be injected into a geosynchronous orbit, 18 minutes after lift-off.
Cyclone Gaja had clouded the launch plans but with it changing course and conducive weather conditions prevailing, the rocket blasted off on schedule.
“Credit must go to the ISRO team. Let me congratulate the entire team for this wonderful achievement,” ISRO Chairman K Sivan said on the successful launch.
“This particular satellite is going to provide services to remote place in India, especially in J&K and northeast India under Digital India program of the government of India,” he said.
The ISRO chief had earlier said that the Wednesday launch was one of the ‘very important missions and a milestone’ for India’s space programme.
“This is GSLV-MkIII-D2 second developmental flight. It is going to launch very important and high throughput satellite GSAT-29. The satellite will be useful in Jammu and Kashmir and north east region for providing connectivity under the Centre’s Digital India programme.” he had said.
A successful launch would pave the way for producing very advanced satellite in future for ISRO, he said.
“(It is) this vehicle (GSLV-MkIII) is going to launch the Chandrayaan-II and also the manned mission. We are getting prepared for that,” Sivan had said.
GSLV-MkIII is the fifth generation launch vehicle developed by ISRO and is designed to place satellites of up to 4,000 kg in GTO.
The launch vehicle is the 67th launch mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and the 33 communication satellite built by the ISRO for which this will be the fifth launch this year.
The GSLV-MkIII-D2 is a three stage launch vehicle with two solid strap-ons, a liquid core stage and a cryogenic upper stage. Compared to solid and liquid stages, the C25 cryogenic stage is more efficient as well as complex.
According to the ISRO, the GSAT-29 satellite is intended to serve as a test bed for several new technologies. It is specifically designed to cater to communication requirements of users from remote areas of the country.
The mission life is about 10 years.
With ANI inputs.
Source: Rediff