NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), stated on Tuesday that it will launch a major communications satellite later this year on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
NSIL announced the signing of a deal with SpaceX to launch a GSAT-20 communications satellite in the second quarter of 2024. According to the organization, GSAT-20 is the second “demand-driven” communications satellite funded and controlled exclusively by NSIL. The first, GSAT-24, launched in mid-2022 on a European Ariane 5 rocket.GSAT-20 has been designed to deliver high-throughput connectivity across India with a Ka-band payload with a capacity of 48 gigabits per second.
In more than three years, GSAT-20 will be the first communications satellite from India to be launched on an American rocket. Three of the first four INSAT communications satellites were launched by Delta rockets or the Space Shuttle from the United States. This occurred between 1982 and 1992. ISRO has mostly used its own vehicles and the Ariane family of rockets to launch INSAT and GSAT communications satellites since then.
As per SpaceNews, the rising complexity and mass of Indian satellites has surpassed the country’s development of bigger launch vehicles. This implies that the country has had to rely on foreign rockets on several occasions in the past. This often meant contracts with Arianespace to use its Ariane series of rockets. However, Ariane 5 completed its last flight in July 2022, while Ariane 6 has not yet launched.
As a result, India, like many other customers, had to rely on SpaceX and its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket to launch GSAT-20.