ISRO's GSAT-30 completes 3 orbit manoeuvres, nears its orbital home

Just three days after Indian Space Research Organisation's GSAT-30 completed three planned orbit manoeuvres, ISRO on Monday said the 'high power' communication satellite has reached its orbital home and deployed its solar arrays and antennas.

ISRO also took to its official Twitter handle on Monday and informed about the completion of three planned orbit manoeuvres

Being India's first space mission in 2020, ISRO's GSAT-30 aimed at providing high-quality television, telecommunications, and broadcasting services. The GSAT-30 was successfully launched from onboard Ariane-5 flight at Kourou launch base in French Guiana on January 17. The satellite was launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) at 2:35 am.

The European rocket Arianespace launched the GSAT-30 satellite for the ISRO and the Eutelsat Konnect satellite for the French telecommunications company Eutelsat.

After a flight of 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.

While talking about the satellite, ISRO chairman K Sivan said, "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."

"The satellite will also be used for bulk data transfer for a host of emerging telecommunication applications," Sivan added. 

READ | PM Modi congratulates ISRO for successfully launching GSAT-30

The mission life of 15 years 

ISRO said GSAT-30 will serve as a replacement to INSAT-4A spacecraft services which had a limited coverage area. INSAT-4A’s usage of the Ku-band and C-band is how DTH operators like TataSky, Airtel TV, Dish TV, and others provide services to customers in India.

The GSAT-30 will provide Indian mainland and islands coverage in Ku-band and extended coverage in C-band covering Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia, according to ISRO.  

Geo-stationery satellites that orbit Earth at an altitude of over 35,000 km above the equator are used for transmission of television channels. Satellite transmission of television channels is usually done using two types of bands. These bands are the C band with frequencies ranging from 4.0 to 8.0 gigahertz and the Ku Band with frequencies ranging between 12 to 18 gigahertz. 

READ | Ariane 5 rocket VA251 successfully launches India's first satellite of 2020 GSAT-30

READ | ISRO's upcoming GSAT-30 satellite set to expand Indian DTH services beyond South Asia

(With ANI inputs)