India's advanced
communications satellite GSAT-16 was carried into orbit by an European Ariane 5
rocket, that blasted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana Saturday,
Arianespace announced.
The
Ariane 5 rocket also carried the US telecommunications satellite DIRECTV-14
into orbit.
The launch, which was delayed for two days
owing to bad weather, took place at 08.40pm GMT (2:10am IST). This was the
sixth launch of its kind so far this year.
Weighing
3,181.6kg, GSAT 16, designed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro)
carries 48 transponders automatic receivers and transmitters for communication
and broadcast of signals.
The GSAT-16 is equipped with Ku and C-band
transponders to boost telecommunication transmissions on the Indian
subcontinent, Arianespace said.
The
satellite is the 11th among GSAT series and the 24th geostationary
communication satellite with a lifespan of 12 years.
"GSAT-16 will replace the INSAT-3E, which
expired in April," Isro satellite centre director S. Shiva Kumar had said.
The satellite will be placed at 55 degrees
east over India in a geostationary orbit, about 36,000km above the earth.
With a total of 168 transponders in the C,
extended C and Ku-bands, the INSAT and GSAT series of satellites provide
services like telecommunication, television broadcasting, weather forecasting,
disaster warning and search and rescue operations.
India uses Ariane rockets to put its heavy
communication satellites in geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) as it does not
have a rocket to carry a three-tonne satellite.
Isro is developing one such rocket called the
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III.
The US satellite DIRECTV-14, which was also
carried into orbit by the Ariane 5 rocket, will provide high-definition images
to 31 million television viewers in the US and Latin America.
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