ISRO has established a strategic partnership with Elon Musk-owned SpaceX for the launch of the upcoming GSAT-20 satellite. The deal was sealed by ISRO’s commercial venture NewSpace India Limited and SpaceX. The launch will happen by Q2 2024 via SpaceX’s Falcon-9, which is a very powerful rocket with a high success rate. This is the first time ISRO will make use of a SpaceX rocket to launch satellites. This development shows that India too needs high-power rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket.
NSIL took to Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) and disclosed the development. According to NSIL, GSAT-20 will be ISRO’s second demand-driven satellite mission, which is designed to fulfill India’s communication requirements. NSIL will release GSAT-20 and the launch will happen via Falcon 9 under a launch service contract between NSIL and SpaceX.
To recall, NSIL’s first demand mission GSAT-24 was launched in June 2022 and the capacity was completely secured by Tata Play. The upcoming GSAT-20 mission will provide cost-effective Ka-Ka band HTS capacity. The purpose of the satellite is to meet the growing demand for Broadband, IFMC, and mobile backhaul service requirements. Even before the launch, the HTS capacity has already been secured by Indian service providers. We also expect few foreign companies to buy HTS capacity for their requirement.
Falcon 9 is regarded as the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket with the ability to reuse the lower stage several times. This leads to quicker launches after the previous launch. As of this writing, Falcon 9 has carried out 285 launches, 217 re-flights, and 243 landings. The collaboration between ISRO and SpaceX has opened several possibilities. ISRO should try to build powerful rockets like Falcon 9 so that they can send heavier satellites into space.
