Sriharikota: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is scheduled to launch the Indian Navy's GSAT 7R (CMS-03) communication satellite on Sunday evening. The indigenously developed satellite will be India's heaviest communication satellite to date, weighing around 4,400 kg.
The launch is set to take place from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Station in Sriharikota at 5:26 PM. The event will be streamed live on ISRO's YouTube channel.
The satellite will strengthen the Navy's space-based communications and maritime domain awareness capabilities, featuring several indigenous state-of-the-art components developed specifically to meet the Indian Navy's operational requirements.
"This satellite is India's heaviest communication satellite to date, weighing approximately more than 4,400 kg, and includes many indigenous state-of-the-art components developed specifically to meet the Indian Navy's operational requirements," the Indian Navy said.
CMS-03 is a multi-band communication satellite that will provide services over a wide oceanic region, including the Indian landmass, according to ISRO.
The satellite will be launched by the LVM3 launch vehicle, which successfully carried India's Chandrayaan-3 mission to the lunar south pole. This will be the vehicle's fifth operational flight.
"CMS-03, weighing about 4,400 kg, will be the heaviest communication satellite to be launched to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) from Indian soil. The previous mission of LVM3 launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission, wherein India became the first country to land successfully near the lunar south pole," ISRO said in a statement.
The launch vehicle had been assembled earlier and has been on the launch pad since October 26 for pre-launch operations.
The LVM3-M5 launch will have eight sequences, with the CMS-03 being separated from the vehicle at an altitude of around 179 kilometres, at a velocity of about 10 km per second.
The launch vehicle has a height of 43.5 meters and a total lift-off mass of 642 tonnes. It uses three stages of propellants to enable the satellite to reach the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).