India’s top space agency will launch its heaviest satellite ever in June

• The GSAT-11 is the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) heaviest satellite yet.
• The launch that has been delayed since 2016, might finally happen in June this year.
  
• ISRO's heaviest satellite yet weighs in at 5,725 kgs.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) just finished testing the GSAT-11, India’s ‘heaviest satellite ever’, and it passed with flying colors. Tipping the scale to 5,725 kilograms, the GSAT-11 surpasses the previous heaviest Indian satellite, the GSAT-17 that weighed in at 3477 kgs.

To put it in perspective, the GSAT-11 weighs approximately as much as 13 male polar bears or 24 baby grand pianos. Even the the PSLV-C37, launched on 15 February 2017, with 104 satellites onboard, only weighed 1378 kgs cumulatively.

India’s heaviest satellite was originally scheduled to be launched by the fourth quarter of 2016. After a series of delays, the GSAT-11 was finally shipped off to South America for its launch scheduled for May 25, 2018. Alas, that didn’t work out either and the satellite was shipped back for a series of ‘technical checks’.

Those tests have now, officially, been completed and the GSAT-11 is good to go. ISRO is currently trying to figure out the next feasible launch date in coordination with Arianespace. Probably to be scheduled for sometime in June, the satellite will launch from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana.

It’s not surprising that ISRO is cautious about this launch after losing contact with the GSAT-6A. That was India’s largest communications satellite and ISRO lost contact with it three days later, on April 1.

Setting global standards

The entire cost of the GSAT-11 is pegged at around ₹5 billion. That being said, the large satellite has solar panels as big as an average room, as well as 40 transponders that can transfer information at the speed of 14 gigabits per second (gbps).

The GSAT-11 isn’t too far from breaking the record for being the heaviest satellite to launch globally. In comparison, the TerreStar 1, the heaviest and most powerful satellite ever launched, weighs 6910 kgs.

The article header image is of the GSLV-F08 liftoff.