ISRO's GSAT-30 satellite to be launched onboard Ariane-5 from French Guiana on Jan 17

India is all set to launch the flagship communication satellite GSAT-30 onboard Ariane 5 'a European heavy-lift launch vehicle' that will be launched from French Guiana on January 17, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said on Monday. “GSAT-30 is to serve as a replacement to INSAT-4A spacecraft services with enhanced coverage,” ISRO said. "The satellite provides Indian mainland and islands coverage in Ku-band and extended coverage in C-band covering Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia,'' it added.

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Mission life of 15 years

The 3,357 kg GSAT-30 is said to have a mission life of 15 years wherein it will be an operational communication satellite for DTH, television uplink and VSAT services. The satellite is a successor of the INSAT/GSAT satellite series. The satellite provides Indian mainland and islands coverage in Ku-band and extended coverage in C-band covering Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia.

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On December 11, 2019, the nation's premier space research agency had successfully placed into Earth's orbit RISAT2BR1 which is radar imaging earth observation satellite. The RISAT satellites can see through clouds and at night too. It will help check infiltration by 24x7 border surveillance. The satellite weighs about 628 kg and will provide services in the field of Agriculture, Forestry and Disaster Management. The mission life of RISAT-2BR1 is five years. It will be placed at around 560 km altitude in the polar orbit. RISAT-2BRI was launched with nine other customer satellites including one from Israel, one from Italy, one from Japan and six from the US as "co-passengers" by PSLV-C48. 

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