SpaceX’s Falcon-9 deploys India’s GSAT-N2 satellite into orbit

India’s GSAT-N2 (GSAT-20) communication satellite was successfully launched by SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket in the early hours of November 19, 2024.

After lifting off at 12.01 a.m. (Indian Standard Time) from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, Falcon-9 put the GSAT-N2 to a geosynchronous transfer orbit. This is India’s first collaboration with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.  

It is a Ka-band high-throughput communication satellite of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), which is the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). According to the ISRO, the satellite will enhance broadband services and in-flight connectivity across the Indian region.

The satellite offers Ka-Ka band HTS capacity with 32 beams having pan-India coverage, including Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands.

“This satellite, featuring multiple spot beams and wideband Ka x Ka transponders, aims to support a large subscriber base with small user terminals, significantly boosting system throughput through its multi-beam architecture which allows frequency reuse,” the ISRO said.

The GSAT-N2, with a lift-off mass of 4,700 kg, has a mission life of 14 years.

32 user beams

The satellite is equipped with 32 user beams, comprising eight narrow spot beams over the northeast region and 24 wide spot beams over the rest of India. 

These 32 beams will be supported by hub stations located within mainland India. The Ka-Band HTS communication payload provides a throughput of approximately 48 Gbps.

The payload consists of three parabolic 2.5-metre deployable reflectors with multiple feeds generating 32 spot beams over the Indian region using a single feed per beam configuration.

The satellite carries a Sun Sensor, Earth Sensor, Inertial Reference Unit (IRU), and Star Sensor. All sensors provide attitude data in the form of absolute attitude, while the IRU provides attitude rates and incremental angles about all the axes.

The GSAT-N2 is the second demand-driven satellite of NSIL.

It can be recalled that as part of the space sector reforms announced by the Centre in June 2020, NSIL was mandated to build, launch, own and operate satellites in “demand-driven mode” to meet service needs of the user.

As part of this, NSIL successfully undertook its first demand-driven satellite mission, GSAT-24 in June 2022, wherein the capacity-board of the satellite was fully secured by TataPlay.

According to SpaceX, this was the 19th flight for the Falcon-9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched SES-22, ispace’s HAKUTO-R MISSION 1, Amazonas-6, CRS-27, Bandwagon-1, and 13 Starlink missions.