India to launch communications satellite on SpaceX Falcon-9

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial subsidiary of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has announced plans to launch its second demand-driven communications satellite, the GSAT-20 (renamed GSAT-N2), into space in the second quarter of 2024 aboard a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket.

The GSAT-20, funded and operated exclusively by NSIL, is a high-throughput Ka-band satellite with 48 gigabits per second of capacity. It is designed to significantly improve broadband connectivity, in-flight and maritime communications, and cellular backhaul services.

GSAT-20 has been in development for several years and was originally expected to launch on the Geosynchrous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 3, or LVM3.

NSIL did not disclose the reason for launching the satellite instead with SpaceX, but the release noted the spacecraft has a mass of 4,700 kilograms. The LVM3 has a capacity to geostationary transfer orbit of 4,000 kilograms.

However, SpaceX describes the Falcon 9 as the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket, thus spotlighting the significance of this collaboration between NSIL and SpaceX for the upcoming satellite mission.

NSIL’s first demand-driven satellite mission was the GSAT-24, launched in June 2022, and fully leased to TataPlay. Currently, NSIL operates 11 communication satellites.

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The upcoming GSAT-20 mission has already witnessed its HTS capacity largely pre-booked by Indian service providers, indicating a growing demand for higher-capacity satellite services.

India has regularly launched its largest satellites on foreign rockets, as the increasing mass of the spacecraft outpaced the growth in its launch vehicles.

For many years, that involved contracts with Arianespace for launches on Ariane rockets. However, the Ariane 5 performed its final flight in July 2022 and its successor, the Ariane 6, will not flying until at least the middle of this year.

NSIL is the latest customer to turn to SpaceX because of a lack of available near-term launch options. Companies developing broadband constellations that will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, like Amazon and Telesat, have signed Falcon 9 launch contracts.

GSAT-20 will be the first Indian communications satellite in more than three decades to launch on an American rocket. Three of the first four INSAT communications satellites were launched on Delta rockets and the Space Shuttle between 1982 and 1992. Since then, India has relied exclusively on its vehicles and the Ariane family of rockets for INSAT and GSAT communications satellites.