Chennai: European space agency Arianespace on Thursday put into orbit two communication satellites belonging to India and Malaysia in geostationary orbit.
The two satellites weighing cumulatively 10,863 kg were flown by Ariane 5 rocket from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, said Arianespace.
"With this Ariane 5 mission, Arianespace is honoured to support the ambitions of two key actors in the Asia-Pacific region: MEASAT, the leading Malaysian satellite operator and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a Government of India company within the Department of Space (DOS) acting in concert with the Indian Space Agency ISRO," declared Stephane Israel, CEO of Arianespace. "With the orbiting of both MEASAT-3d, the fourth satellite that we've launched for the benefit of Malaysia, and GSAT-24, the 25th Indian satellite we've delivered for them, we are affirming our long term partnership with these two great actors," he added.
GSAT-24 built by ISRO is a 24-Ku band communication satellite weighing 4,181 kg with pan India coverage for meeting the direct-to-home (DTH) application needs.
The GSAT-24 has a life span of 15 years.
The NSIL has leased the entire satellite capacity to Tata Play.
For NSIL the GSAT-24 satellite mission is its first demand driven mission post space reforms in India.
On September 28, 2021, NSIL entrusted Arianespace with the launch of its GSAT-24 telecommunications satellite, the European Space Agency had said earlier.
According to Arianespace, the Malaysian satellite MEASAT-3d, to be co-located with MEASAT-3a and MEASAT-3b in the 91.5AoE orbital slot, is a multi-mission telecommunications satellite built by Airbus Defence and Space.
The MEASAT-3d will significantly enhance broadband speeds of up to 100 Mbps per user in areas with limited or no terrestrial network throughout Malaysia, while continuing to provide redundancy and additional capacity for video distribution in HD, 4K, and ultimately 8K in the Asia-Pacific region.
The MEASAT-3d will also carry an extremely innovative payload on behalf of the Korean operator KTSAT.A Conceived by Airbus Defense and Space, it will be used by the Korean Augmentation System (KASS), a project of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport led by KARI, the Korean Space Agency, to significantly improve air traffic control in South Korea, Arianespace said. —IANS