India Gets First Military Satellite GSAT-7
Sat up to watch this. Real
history, given how long the Indian Navy has wanted this. India's first dedicated
military satellite was placed into orbit early this morning by the Ariane-5
rocket, launched from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite will be exclusive for
use by the Indian Navy that's so far had to share bandwidth on India's existing
space platforms, including the INMARSAT family of satellites.
The GSAT-7 will be activated for
operations on September 14 in a geostationary orbit 36,0000-km above the
equator.
According to ISRO, "GSAT-7 is
an advanced communication satellite built by ISRO to provide wide range of
service spectrum from low bit rate voice to high bit rate data communication.
GSAT-7 Communication payload is designed to provide communication capabilities
to users over a wide oceanic region including the Indian land-mass. The payload
configuration is compatible with I-2.5K bus of ISRO. The GSAT-7 payload design
includes Multiband communication."
Congratulations to the navy, ISRO
and the GSAT-7 team!