India Launched GSAT-12 by PSLV C17 Vehicle

India has successfully launched its new communication satellite GSAT-12 from the second launching pad of Sathish Dawan Space Center,SHAR, Sriharikota.  The satellite is built by ISRO. Polar satellite launch Vehicle (PSLV) C17 Rocket is used to launch the satellite in to its orbit. The satellite weighs 1410 kg at lift-off and 559 Kg dry mass.  GSAT-12 was injected into an elliptical Transfer Orbit of 284 km perigee (closest point to Earth) and 21,000 km apogee (farthest point to Earth).

“I am extremely happy to state that the PSVL-C17 GSAT12 mission is successful. The launch vehicle injected the satellite very precisely into the intended orbit,” a beaming ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan announced.

PSLV-XL,six extended solid strap-on motors are used wherein each strap-on will carry 12 tonnes of solid propellant. This is the second time such configuration is being flown, earlier one being the PSLV-C11/Chandrayaan-1 mission.It is the 18^th successful launch of PSLV in a row.

GSAT-12 has 12 extended C band transponders and it would use to tele-medicine and tele-education services and 'more importantly' provide support for disaster management. It solar array providing 1430 watts of electricity and has a 64Ah Li-ion Batteries.  It also has a 0.7 meter diameter body mounted parabolic receive antenna and a 1.2 meter diameter polarization sensitive deployable antenna. The satellite would be co-located with Insat2E and Insat 4A at 83 degree east. This satellite is a small one, less weighs and less power to compare other geostationary satellites of India. The main achievement of the launch is that ISRO could use the PSLV vehicle to launch a geostationary satellite where the last two launch of GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) failed. But India must develop the GSLV to launch the geostationary satellites weighs 2 to 2.5 tonne’s.

Courtesy: ISRO Website