Bangalore, May 21 (PTI) Giving a boost to its communication and TV broadcast
services, India today successfully launched its advanced GSAT-8 satellite on
board Arianespace rocket from Kourou in French Guiana.The 3,100 kg GSAT-8,
primarily aimed at augmenting India’s direct-to-home TV broadcast services,
was hurled into space by European launcher in a 31-minute mission on Ariane 5
rocket’s 44th consecutive successful flight.The Indian satellite, with a Japanese
co-passenger ST2, was the second to be injected into the Geo Synchronous
Transfer Orbit by the rocket which blasted off at 2.08 am (IST) from French
Guiana, a region of France on the North-East coast of South America.Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated the Department of Space for the
successful launch of GSAT-8. He spoke to Indian Space Research Organisation
Chairman K Radhakrishnan over phone and conveyed his greetingsGSAT-8,
which is expected to become operational in 4-6 weeks after being inducted into
the INSAT system, is equipped with 24 high-powered Ku Band transponders to
augment India�s Ku-band relay capabilities � particularly DTH services.“This
(the launch) is another great moment for us�,” Radhakrishnan said in Kourou
where his team watched the launch.He said ISRO’s Master Control Facility at
Hassan in Karnataka has confirmed the reception of signals from GSAT-8 and
taken charge of the command and control of the satellite immediately after its
injection into the GTO.The total cost of the GSAT-8 project is about Rs 600 crore,
including around Rs 250 crore for the spacecraft, more than Rs 300 crore for
launch services by Arianespace and over Rs 30 crore towards insurance, ISRO
sources told PTI.Radhakrishnan said the user community in India is looking
forward for the operationalisation of the 24 transponders into the Indian
National Satellite system.ISRO officials said the launch was doubly gratifying as
the space agency had lost two satellites last year in unsuccessful missions of
indigenous GSLV rockets launched from home soil.After the successive failures,
ISRO was desperately looking to augment transponder capacity to meet the
growing demand. .
Re: India launches GSAT-8 satellite successfully
Atleast one thing india done it right,i think this 6 or 7th launch in this year
Intact india is building launcher pods for nasa for moon mission
Re: India launches GSAT-8 satellite successfully
ISRO is doing a fine job compared to other scientific organizations of India. Some of the Govt owned R&D organizations are like white elephants DRDO, CSIR (CSIO), Semi Conductors India, BHEL etc etc. So much of tax payers money going into these organization resulting in not many positive research outcomes...
Re: India launches GSAT-8 satellite successfully
Atleast one thing india done it right,i think this 6 or 7th launch in this year
Intact india is building launcher pods for nasa for moon mission
Doesn't this use dual purpose technology from the ballistic missile program?
Re: India launches GSAT-8 satellite successfully
Doesn't this use dual purpose technology from the ballistic missile program?
don’t you bother pakistan will be on moon in five years , announced by sir zaid zaman hamid in 2008 , sattlite is nothing , ghazava hind ke bad sare india per kabja hoga
Re: India launches GSAT-8 satellite successfully
as far as the moon is concerned inshaAllah woh time bhi aayay ga, anyways our newest satellite would be launched by august 2011
Re: India launches GSAT-8 satellite successfully
^ Yes, on 14 August 2011 
@ indik: why are you so obsessed with Syed Zaid Hamid? No need to mention his name all the time 