After completing 3 orbit manoeuvres, ISRO says GSAT-30 nears its orbital home

Just days after the GSAT-30 successfully completed three planned orbit manoeuvres, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday said the 'high power' communication satellite has reached its orbital home and deployed its solar arrays as well as the antennas.

"After the completion of three planned orbit manoeuvres, #GSAT30 nears its orbital home with its solar arrays and antennas deployed," the ISRO said in a tweet.

The satellite, aimed at providing high-quality television, telecommunications and broadcasting services, was successfully launched from onboard Ariane-5 flight at Kourou launch base in French Guiana on early Jan 17.

Being India's first space mission in 2020, GSAT-30 was successfully launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) at 2:35 am.

The European rocket Arianespace launched the GSAT-30 satellite for the ISRO and the Eutelsat Konnect satellite for the French telecommunications company Eutelsat.

After a flight lasting 38 minutes 25 seconds, the GSAT-30 separated from the Ariane 5 upper stage in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. Weighing 3357 kg, GSAT-30 will serve as a replacement to ISRO's INSAT-4A spacecraft services with enhanced coverage.

"GSAT-30 has a unique configuration of providing flexible frequency segments and flexible coverage. The satellite will provide communication services to Indian mainland and islands through Ku-band and wide coverage covering Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia through C-band," said ISRO chairman K Sivan.

The GSAT-30 will provide DTH television services, connectivity to VSATs for ATM, stock-exchange, television uplinking and Teleport Services, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) and e-governance applications.

"The satellite will also be used for bulk data transfer for a host of emerging telecommunication applications," the ISRO chairman said.

Meanwhile, Eutelsat Konnect, a new generation satellite, will provide telecommunication services across Europe and Africa.