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ISRO's GSAT-6A mission to be launched on Thursday
Updated: Mar 27, 2018 | 19:06 IST | Times Now Digital
ISRO's GSLV F08-GSAT6A mission
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that the GSLV -F08 / GSAT-6A mission will be launched on Thursday (March 29) at 4:56pm IST from SDSC SHAR, Shriharikota. Much like the GSAT-6, the GSAT-6A is a high-power S-band communication satellite configured around I-2K bus. What makes the
mission interesting is that the nearly Rs. 800 crore project is cheaper than the production budget of the Hollywood movie 'Interstellar'(which has a budget of Rs. 1,062 crores). Chandrayaan-2 will be ISRO's first inter-planetary mission to land a rover on any celestial body.
ISRO adds that the mission life of spacecraft planned is about 10 years and the satellite will also provide a platform for developing technologies such as demonstration of 6 m S-Band Unfurlable Antenna, handheld ground terminals and network management techniques that could be useful in satellite based mobile communication applications. GSAT-6A is scheduled to be launched by GSLV-F08.
Also read: Igloos on the Moon: ISRO's new outpost will have humans working from lunar habitats
Talking about the GSLV-F08, it will be the flight 12 of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and sixth flight with indigenous cryogenic stage. The launch of GSLV-F08 carrying GSAT-6A is planned from the second launch pad (SLP) in Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. ISRO's GSLV-F08 weighs 415.6 tonnes and is basically will provide mobile communication for India through multi-beam coverage facility.
ISRO recently confirmed that the
second lunar mission dubbed Chandrayaan 2 has been postponed to October as experts have suggested additional tests. The Indian Space Research Agency said that mission will now be launched in the first week of October from the earlier scheduled date of April 23. The news was confirmed by ISRO chairman K Sivan.
The chairman explained some of the reasons why the launch was delayed for the moon as the launch comes only once in a month, and if ISRO plans to launch the mission between May to September, they would not be able to make complete use of the full lunar day for experiments on the moon because of eclipses and other factors. As a result, the mission was deferred to the first week of October, the chairman added.
