Indian Space Agency Partners with SpaceX to Launch Broadband Satellite

The launch of the GSAT family (photo: twitter @ISRO)

JAKARTA – NewSpace India Ltd. (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Agency (ISRO), announced that it has collaborated with SpaceX to launch a broadband satellite.

The satellite to be launched is Geosynchronous Satellite (GSAT)-20, now renamed GSAT-N2. In the contract that has been signed, this satellite will be launched in the second quarter of 2024 using a Falcon 9 rocket.

"NSIL realized the GSAT-20 satellite through ISRO and will be launched on a Falcon-9 aircraft under a Launch service contract between NSIL and SpaceX, United States," wrote NSIL in a press release issued on Tuesday, January 2.

Even though NSIL has announced the collaboration, they do not want to reveal the contents of the agreement that has been signed. The company only explained that they and SpaceX were preparing for launch.

Initially, GSAT-N2 was expected to launch on a Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) rocket developed by ISRO. It is not known why NSIL chose SpaceX, but it most likely has to do with the weight of the GSAT satellite that will be carried.

The LVM3 is only capable of carrying payloads weighing 4,000 kilograms, while the GSAT-N2 weighs 4,700 kilograms. Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 rocket's payload is much larger than the LVM3, reaching 8,300 kilograms.

Later, after launching with the Falcon 9, GSAT-N2 will offer a High Throughput Satellite (HTS) Ka-Ka band capacity with 32 beams for broadband needs. The HTS capacity will reach 48Gbps.

NSIL claims that the broadband service from the GSAT-N2 constellation is able to enter areas that are remote or difficult to connect to regular networks. However, NSIL's current focus is still around India, such as the Andaman and Nicobar islands and Lakshadweep.