SOURCE: UNI
Indian space agency ISRO has joined hands with the company of big industrialist Elon Musk, SpaceX. Musk’s company SpaceX, a close friend of America’s newly elected President Donald Trump, will carry India’s most modern communications satellite GSAT-20 (GSAT N-2) into space early next week on a Falcon 9 rocket There have been many deals between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and SpaceX. GSAT-N2 will be launched from Cape Canaveral in the US. This 4700 kg satellite was too heavy for Indian rockets, so it was sent for foreign commercial launch.
India’s own rocket ‘The Bahubali’ or Launch Vehicle Mark-3 could carry a maximum weight of 4000 to 4100 kg into space orbit. India was till now dependent on Arianespace to launch its heavy satellites but it currently does not have any operational rockets and the only credible option India had was to go with SpaceX. Chinese rockets are unsuitable for India and due to the conict in Ukraine, Russia is not able to oer its rockets for commercial launches.
ISRO has built GSAT-N2, weighing 4700 kg, and has a mission life of 14 years. This is a purely commercial launch, being operated by NSIL. The satellite is equipped with 32 user beams, including eight narrow spot beams over the Northeast region and 24 wide spot beams over the rest of India. These 32 beams will be supported by hub stations located in mainland India. This will also help enable in-ight internet connectivity.
It is estimated that this single dedicated commercial launch of Falcon 9 rocket to carry India’s communication satellite will cost $60-70 million (Rs 591 crore 34 lakh approx). It is well known that Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi share a very good relationship and both call each other friends. Entrepreneur Elon Musk is also a friend of both. Elon Musk has said many times that he is a “fan of remains to be seen whether Musk makes many more big deals with India in the future