India's GSAT-24 satellite launched with entire capacity leased to Tata Play
GSAT-24 is a 4180 kg 24-Ku band communication satellite with pan-India coverage for DTH applications. GSAT-24 is built on ISRO's tried-and-true I-3k Bus and has a 15-year mission life.
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FollowFollowing space sector reforms, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) launched GSAT-24, its first "demand-driven" communication satellite mission, leasing the entire capacity on board to Direct-to-Home (DTH) service provider Tata Play.
The satellite, built by the Indian Space Research Organization for NSIL, was safely launched into geostationary orbit on Thursday by the Ariane 5 rocket, managed by the French company Arianespace, from Kourou in French Guiana (South America).
GSAT-24 is a 4180 kg 24-Ku band communication satellite with pan-India coverage for DTH applications. GSAT-24 is built on ISRO's tried-and-true I-3k Bus and has a 15-year mission life.
As part of the Government's "space reforms" announced in June 2020, NSIL was required to execute operational satellite missions on a "demand driven" basis, in which it is responsible for building, launching, owning, and operating satellites as well as providing services to its committed customers.
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The whole satellite capacity on-board GSAT-24 will be leased to its committed client - Tata Play, the Tata Group's DTH subsidiary - to suit their DTH application demands.
"The Ariane 5 has successfully deployed two satellites into geostationary orbit: MEASAT-3d for the Malaysian operator MEASAT and GSAT-24," Arianespace announced after launching them on an Ariane-V VA257 voyage from Europe's spaceport in Kourou.
"'Demand-driven' mode basically implies that when the satellite is launched, one will know who the end customers will be and what sort of utilisation and commitment would be so that you have extremely effective utilisation of this satellite capacity once it goes into orbit," an NSIL official added.
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With the successful launch of GSAT-24, NSIL will own and operate 11 communication satellites in orbit, which will fulfil the majority of the country's communication demands, according to NSIL. "GSAT-24 is the first of several Demand Driven Missions that NSIL will conduct in the future years," the organisation stated.
(With PTI inputs)
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