The satellite was launched by European launch services provider- Arianespace’s rocket from French Guiana in the early hours of Wednesday.
lasting off from Ariane Launch Complex at Kourou, a French territory located in northeastern coast of South America at at 2.31 am (IST), the Ariane-5 vehicle injected GSAT-31 into the orbit in a 42-min flight.
“It gives me great pleasure on the successful launch of GSAT-31 spacecraft on board Ariane-5,” ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) Director S Pandian said.
The GSAT-31 is a “high power” communication satellite with Ku-band, and it is going to serve and replace some of the satellites that are going to expire soon, he said further
1. With a mission life of around 15 years, GSAT-31 will be used for supporting VSAT networks, television uplinks, digital satellite news gathering, DTH-television services, cellular backhaul connectivity, and many such applications.
2. It will also provide wide beam coverage to facilitate communication over a large oceanic region, comprising large parts of Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, using a wide band transponder.
3. According to ISRO, two Ku-band beacon downlink signals are transmitted for ground tracking purpose.
Since the launch of India's APPLE experimental satellite on Ariane Flight L03 in 1981, Arianespace has orbited 22 satellites and signed 24 launch contracts with the Indian space agency.
