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Kourou, French Guiana: NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DoS), successfully launched GSAT-24 communication satellite onboard Ariane 5 (VA-257 flight) from Kourou, French Guiana on On Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 06:50 pm local time.

On nearly 40 minutes of flight, GSAT-24 satellite was successfully injected into its intended Geo-Synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) with Perigee: 250 km and Apogee: 35825 km.  

After successful placement of the satellite by the launch vehicle in Geo­synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) with Perigee: 250 km, Apogee: 35,825 km and Orbit inclination: 6 deg, the satellite orbit was raised using its on-board propulsion system.

After successful completion of Four Apogee Motor Burn maneuvers, GSAT-24 satellite was successfully placed into its final circular Geo Stationary Orbit (GSO).

North and South Solar panels of the satellite including communication antenna have been successfully deployed and the satellite is in 3 axis stabilized mode.

GSAT-24 satellite is getting prepared to commence its In-orbit Testing (IoT) operations. After successful completion of IoT, GSAT-24 will start the commercial service operations for DTH Service Provider M/s Tata Play.

The VA257 flight in addition to GSAT-24 satellite of India also carried Measat-3d communication satellite from Malaysia as other co-passenger.

GSAT-24 is a 24 Ku band communication satellite meant for meeting the Direct-To-Home (DTH) communication needs of the country. Satellite weighed 4180 kg at lift-off and has mission life of 15 years. NSIL has leased the entire satellite capacity to M/s Tata Play for a period of 15 years.  The entire funding for the GSAT-24 mission has been borne by NSIL.

Post-separation of GSAT-24 satellite, ISRO’s Master Control Facility at Hassan, Karnataka took control of the satellite and initial data received indicates good health of the satellite. In the coming days, the orbit of GSAT-24 satellite would be raised from GTO to Geo-Stationary Orbit (GSO), through a series of orbit raising manoeuvres using satellite’s on-board propulsion system.   

“Today’s successful mission of GSAT-24 is a major step forward for NSIL in commercially meeting the DTH communication needs of the country using indigenously built satellite solutions from ISRO,” Dr S Somanath, Secretary DOS said.

With the successful launch of GSAT-24, NSIL will be owning and operating nearly 11 Communication Satellites in-orbit and would meet the bulk of the communication needs of the country.  GSAT-24 is the first of the many Demand Driven Missions, that NSIL would undertake in the coming years.