South Asia Satellite in orbit

India successfully launched, in copy book style, the South Asia Satellite, intended to serve "economic and developmental priorities" of South Asian nations, using its heavy rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F09).

Precisely at 4.57 p.m., the GSLV-F09 rose into the sky from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, carrying the satellite, intended as an Indian Gift for its fellow Saarc nations except for Pakistan which had opted out.

The 49-metre, 415 tonne rocket slung the 2,230 kg satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, from where it would be taken up to its final geostationary orbit.

In 2014, PM Narendra Modi tasked the Indian Space Research Organisation to develop a satellite for use by the Saarc countries. Costing around Rs 235 crore, the satellite was initially known as the Saarc satellite. But with Pakistan deciding to keep out, it is called the South Asia Satellite. With a life span of over 12 years, its objective is to provide communication applications in Ku-band for the user nations.

The satellite, with its 12-Ku band transponders-transmitters and receivers of radio signals, will enable telecommunication, tele-education and tele-medicine as well as mapping of natural resources. It would also provide/augment internet connectivity and would be useful in disaster management.

Modi said the Satellite would go a long way in addressing the region's economic and developmental priorities. "Natural resources mapping, telemedicine, the field of education, deeper IT connectivity or fostering peopleto-people contact, this satellite will prove to be a boon in the progress of the entire region," he said.