Two communication satellites for Malaysia and India will be placed in geostationary orbit by the European space agency Arianespace on Wednesday. According to Arianespace, the Ariane 5 rocket will launch the two satellites, which together weigh 10,863 kg, early on June 22 from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) developed GSAT-24, a 24-Ku band communication satellite with pan-India coverage to satisfy the demands of direct-to-home (DTH) services. Tata Play holds a lease on the whole satellite capacity from the government-owned company NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL).
As its first demand-driven mission following the space reforms, the NSIL is launching the GSAT-24 satellite.
The GSAT-24 will be orbited by Arianespace as the 25th Indian satellite. The European Space Agency had earlier reported that NSIL has given Arianespace the go-ahead to launch its GSAT-24 communications satellite on September 28, 2021.
The other satellite, MEASAT-3d, was created by Airbus Defence and Space for MEASAT, a Malaysian satellite operator, and is a multi-mission communications satellite. In Malaysia’s rural areas or in locations where there is little to no terrestrial network, this new satellite will considerably improve broadband speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
MEASAT-3d is intended to have an electrical output of 12 kW and is expected to operate for more than 18 years. In addition to a high-throughput Ka-band payload with numerous user spot beams optimised to offer high-speed broadband communications over Malaysia for internet access, it will carry C- and Ku-band payloads for direct-to-home (DTH) services.
The satellite will carry a Q/V band payload, the first of its type in the Asia-Pacific region, which will enable MEASAT to research the impacts of propagation in areas with significant rainfall, like Malaysia, in order to develop its next-generation satellites.
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