The ISRO GSAT-11: Where the Mission Critical for Broadband Connectivity Stands

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which has successfully completed three satellite and two launch vehicle missions over the past one month, has posted an update regarding the GSAT-11 mission. The communication satellite has been positioned in its designated Geostationary orbit (at an altitude of about 36000 km) with final orbit-raising maneuver. Solar panels and reflectors have been successfully deployed, said ISRO in a tweet.

GSAT-11, the heaviest satellite built by the Indian Space Research Organisation so far, was launched on the 5th of December and is expected to boost broadband connectivity across the country.

The ISRO GSAT-11 mission is extremely important to Indians for it is expected to meet most of the requirements of providing broadband connectivity to rural and inaccessible gram panchayats under BharatNet Project, which is part of the digital India program initiative of Government of India.

The Bharat Net Project aims to enhance the public welfare schemes like e-banking, e-health, e-governance among others. It is both enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such as Digital India, Make in India, National e-Governance Plan, UMANG, Bharatmala, Sagarmala, Dedicated Freight Corridors, Industrial corridors and UDAN-RCS.

ISRO announced via press release that the 5854-kg GSAT-11 will provide high data rate connectivity to users of Indian mainland and islands through 32 user beams in Ku-band and 8 hub beams in Ka-band.

Some of the other benefits of ISRO GSAT-11 include enabling broadband, telecommunication and multi-media solutions to households, businesses and public organizations and also enabling in-flight connectivity.

ISRO is also apparently ready for the launch of its next mission. According to a report on the Times of India, ISRO will launch communication satellite GSAT-7A dedicated to the Indian Air Force in the third week of December.

The Indian Space Research Organisation has several more missions scheduled to take place including the Chandrayaan-2 mission expected to be launched in the last week of January.