India’s heaviest satellite has gone into orbit on a French rocket to help boost broadband internet services.<\/p>\n
Weighing about 5,854kg (12,906lb), the GSAT-11 is India’s “most-advanced” multi-band communication satellite.<\/p>\n
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) launched the satellite from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana early on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
It will be placed in a geostationary orbit by the end of this month and its transponders will be switched on.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Isro chief K Sivan told reporters that the satellite will “play a vital role in providing broadband services across the country”.<\/p>\n
Scientists say it will provide internet access to “off-grid” remote areas in India – hills and islands, for example – where traditional fixed-line broadband services are not available and would be helpful during emergencies and disaster relief. And it will also help provide internet connectivity during air travel in India.<\/p>\n
India hired a French rocket to carry the satellite, which is expected to have a life span of 15 years, because it does not have a rocket to carry such a heavy payload.<\/p>\n
There are more than 440 million internet users in India, and the number is expected to double by 2022.<\/p>\n
However, slow speeds or lack of services still affect access in the remotest areas where is there is no cable connectivity.<\/p>\n
India has emerged as a major player in the multi-billion dollar space market with dozens of communication and weather satellites in orbit.<\/p>\n
In 2014, it successfully placed a space vessel in orbit around Mars, making it the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt.<\/p>\n
It also launched 104 satellites of varying sizes in one go in 2017, overtaking the previous record of 37 satellites launched by Russia in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India’s heaviest satellite has gone into orbit on a French rocket to help boost broadband internet services. Weighing about 5,854kg (12,906lb), the GSAT-11 is India’s “most-advanced” multi-band communication satellite. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) launched the satellite from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana early on Wednesday morning. It will be placed in a geostationary orbit by the end… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-2610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post","tag-bbc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2611,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610\/revisions\/2611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}