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30 août 2013 5 30 /08 /août /2013 07:35
Geo-Stationary Satellite GSAT-7 satellite at French Guyana, launched by Ariane 5  India (1)

Geo-Stationary Satellite GSAT-7 satellite at French Guyana, launched by Ariane 5 India (1)

August 30, 2013 by Shiv Aroor - Livefist

 

Sat up to watch this. Real history, given how long the Indian Navy has wanted this. India's first dedicated military satellite was placed into orbit early this morning by the Ariane-5 rocket, launched from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite will be exclusive for use by the Indian Navy that's so far had to share bandwidth on India's existing space platforms, including the INMARSAT family of satellites.

 

The GSAT-7 will be activated for operations on September 14 in a geostationary orbit 36,0000-km above the equator.

 

According to ISRO, "GSAT-7 is an advanced communication satellite built by ISRO to provide wide range of service spectrum from low bit rate voice to high bit rate data communication. GSAT-7 Communication payload is designed to provide communication capabilities to users over a wide oceanic region including the Indian land-mass. The payload configuration is compatible with I-2.5K bus of ISRO. The GSAT-7 payload design includes Multiband communication."

 

Congratulations to the navy, ISRO and the GSAT-7 team!

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30 août 2013 5 30 /08 /août /2013 07:35
Ariane 5 Flight VA215 with the EUTELSAT 25B Es’hail 1 and GSAT-7 satellites

Ariane 5 Flight VA215 with the EUTELSAT 25B Es’hail 1 and GSAT-7 satellites

Kourou, August 29, 2013 .arianespace.com

 

Arianespace launch VA215: Mission accomplished !

 

On Thursday, August 29, Arianespace carried out the 57th successful Ariane 5 launch in a row, orbiting two telecommunications satellites: EUTELSAT 25B/Es’hail 1 for the Qatari and European operators, Es’hailSat and Eutelsat, and GSAT-7 for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).  

Fourth Ariane 5 launch in 2013, 57th success in a row: Arianespace continues to offer the world's most reliable launch service!

Today's successful mission, the 57th in a row for the European launcher, once again proves the reliability and availability of the Ariane 5 launch system. It also confirms that Arianespace continues to set the standard for guaranteed access to space for all operators, including national and international space agencies, private industry and governments.

Following the announcement of the orbital injection of the EUTELSAT 25B/Es'hail 1 and GSAT-7 satellites, Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stéphane Israël said: "The 57th successful launch in a row of Ariane 5, the 80th for our family of the Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega launchers, once again confirms the unrivaled reliability of our launch systems. I would like to thank Astrium, as the industrial prime contractor for Ariane 5, along with all other manufacturers involved, and the CNES teams at the Guiana Space Center, for working with us to make this achievement possible. On behalf of everybody at Arianespace, I would like to express our pride this evening in rising to the challenge of meeting the requirements of our three customers, Es'hailSat, Eutelsat and ISRO. Es'hailSat, like 80% of all new players in the telecommunications satellite market, chose Arianespace to orbit their first satellite. I realize that this is a particularly important moment for Es'hailSat, and for its CEO, Ali Ahmed al-Kuwari. Eutelsat and ISRO are both long-standing partners to Arianespace, reaching back over 30 years, and they continue to entrust us with their satellites year after year, within the scope of partnerships that truly honor us. I would like to express my sincere thanks to both of these companies; this latest successful launch shows that they made the right choice by selecting Arianespace! I would also like to personally thank Michel de Rosen, CEO of Eutelsat, and S.K. Shivakumas, Director of the ISRO Satellite Centre, for sharing this launch with us. And last but not least, I would like to thank Nicole Bricq, French Minister of Foreign Trade, and Her Excellency Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber, Qatari Minister for Information and Communication Technology, for kindly agreeing to join us this evening in the Jupiter control room at the Guiana Space Center." 

 

A launch for two long-standing customers, Eutelsat and ISRO, and one new customer, Es'hailSat

The EUTELSAT 25B/Es'hail 1 satellite is a joint program by the Qatari operator Es'hailSat and the European operator Eutelsat. It is the first geostationary telecommunications satellite launched for Qatar, and the 23rd launched by Arianespace for customers in Africa and the Middle East.

It carries on the collaboration between Arianespace and Eutelsat that started in June 1983, and therefore marks its 30th anniversary this year. Two-thirds of the Eutelsat fleet have been launched by Ariane rockets, and Eutelsat 25B is the 27th Eutelsat satellite launched by Arianespace.

GSAT-7 is the 17th ISRO satellite to use the European launcher since the Apple experimental satellite was launched on flight L03 in 1981. Arianespace has also launched two other satellites designed by India, for the operators Eutelsat and Avanti Communications.

The partnership between Arianespace and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reaches back to the creation of Arianespace, and has allowed the two companies to define highly effective joint working methods, as shown by today's launch, just a month after the launch of Insat-3D, a meteorological satellite developed by ISRO, by an Ariane 5 ECA from the Guiana Space Center on July 25.

 

EUTELSAT 25B/Es'hail 1 and GSAT-7 mission at a glance

The mission was carried out by an Ariane 5 ECA launcher from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff was on Thursday, August 29, 2013 at 5:30 pm local time in Kourou (4:30 pm in Washington, D.C., 20:30 UT, 10:30 pm in Paris, 11:30 pm in Doha, and on Friday, August 30 at 2:00 am in Bangalore).

This was the 215th Ariane launch, with Astrium as industrial prime contractor. The launch vehicle boosted 9,776.5 kg into geostationary transfer orbit, including 8,960 kg for the two satellites.

EUTELSAT 25B/Es'hail 1 was designed and built by Space Systems/Loral in California and weighed 6,310 kg at liftoff. The EUTELSAT 25B/Es'hail 1 satellite is a joint program of Es-hailSat and Eutelsat to operate a high-power satellite at 25.5 degrees East, an orbital position that has been used for many years. This new satellite will serve booming markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. It will replace EUTELSAT 25C to bolster the power and coverage provided from this orbital position. In addition to ensuring Ku-band service continuity for Eutelsat and providing Ku-band capacity for Es'hailSat, the satellite will offer the two partners their initial Ka-band capacity, paving the way for new business development opportunities.

GSAT-7. Designed, developed and integrated by ISRO in Bangalore, southern India, GSAT-7 is dedicated to telecommunications services for the Indian government. It weighed 2,650 kg at launch and offers a design life exceeding seven years. GSAT-7 carries Ku, C, S and UHF band transponders. Positioned at 74 degrees East, its coverage zone encompasses the entire Indian subcontinent.

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29 août 2013 4 29 /08 /août /2013 07:35
India's first military satellite will help keep tabs on Indian Ocean region

Aug 28, 2013 Rajat Pandit, TNN

 

The 2,625kg military satellite will help the Navy keep a hawk-eye over both Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.

 

NEW DELHI: India's first dedicated military satellite GSAT-7 or "Rukmini", which will be launched by Arianespace from French Guiana on Friday, will provide the Navy with an almost 2,000-nautical-mile-footprint over the critical Indian Ocean region (IOR).

 

Essentially a geo-stationary communication satellite to enable real-time networking of all Indian warships, submarines and aircraft with operational centres ashore, the 2,625kg Rukmini will also help the Navy keep a hawk-eye over both Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. "From Persian Gulf to Malacca Strait, it will help cover almost 70% of the IOR," said a source.

 

The "over-the-sea use" Rukmini, with UHF, S, Ku and C-band transponders, is to be followed by GSAT-7A with the IAF and Army sharing its "over-the-land use" bandwidth. The Navy has been clamouring for such a satellite for close to a decade now to shorten its "sensor-to-shooter loop" - the ability to swiftly detect and tackle a threat — but the delay in the indigenous GSLV rocket to carry satellites and other factors have been the stumbling blocks.

 

India, of course, has been a late — and somewhat reluctant — entrant into the military space arena despite having a robust civilian programme for decades. Without dedicated satellites of their own, the armed forces were relegated to using "dual use" Cartosat satellites or the Technology Experimental Satellite launched in 2001, apart from leasing foreign satellite transponders for surveillance, navigation and communication purposes.

 

China, in sharp contrast, has taken huge strides in the military space arena, testing even ASAT (anti-satellite) weapons against "low-earth orbit" satellites since January 2007. "With counter-space being a top priority, China has been testing its 'direct-ascent kinetic kill' capabilities. It also has active programmes for kinetic and directed-energy laser weapons as well as nano-satellites. By 2020, it hopes to have a space station with military applications," said a source.

 

Incidentally, around 300 dedicated or dual-use military satellites are orbiting around the earth, with the US owning 50% of them, followed by Russia and China. But India has lagged far behind in utilization of the final frontier of space for military purposes, refusing to even approve the long-standing demand of the armed forces for a full-fledged Aerospace Command, as earlier reported by TOI.

 

Though officially against " any offensive space capabilities or weaponization of space", the defence ministry in 2010 had come out with a 15-year "Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap" that dwelt on the need to develop ASAT weapons "for electronic or physical destruction of satellites in both LEO (2,000km altitude above earth's surface) and GEO-synchronous orbits". These portions were quietly deleted in the roadmap released earlier this year.

 

DRDO contends it can develop ASAT weapons if required by marrying the propulsion system of the over 5,000-km Agni-V missile with the "kill vehicle" of its two-tier BMD (ballistic missile system) system.

 

Apart from working on "directed energy weapons" at its Laser Science &Technology Centre, DRDO also has futuristic programmes for launching "mini-satellites on demand" for use in the battlefield as well as "EMP (electromagnetic pulse) hardening" of satellites and sensors to protect them against ASAT weapons.

 

But all that is in the future. Dedicated military satellites like Rukmini will help India keep real-time tabs over the rapidly-militarizing IOR, where China is increasingly expanding its strategic footprint, as well as on troop movements, missile silos, military installations and airbases across land borders.

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28 août 2013 3 28 /08 /août /2013 11:35
GSat-7 military satellite source CSG CNES

GSat-7 military satellite source CSG CNES

28 August 2013 naval-technology.com

 

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch its first 2.5t military satellite called GSat-7 on 30 August 2013, to improve communication network among Indian navy vessels.

 

On the condition of anonymity, officials said it is the space agency's first dedicated military satellite, even though officially ISRO has called GSat-7 a communication satellite.

 

The Times of India quotes an official as saying that "this is the first time we are launching a satellite with a specifically military role."

 

The satellite, which will be positioned at 74oE, will be launched on the Ariane Flight VA215 from the European spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana.

 

According to ISRO, GSAT-7 is a multi-band satellite carrying payloads in UHF, S-band, C-band and Ku-band and employs 2,000kg class bus (I-2K) platform with a power handling capability of around 3,000W and lift-off mass of 2,550kg.

 

After the launch of GSat-7, India is also planning to launch one satellite each for the air force and the army.

 

Earlier, the Indian space agency allotted a space on its satellite's transponder for classified communication for the armed forces, however, GSat-7 is designed specifically to cater the communication needs of navy.

 

In October 2001, ISRO had launched its Technology Experiment Satellite aimed for spying purposes.

 

French space transportation firm Arianespace has launched 16 Indian satellites so far.

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8 juin 2012 5 08 /06 /juin /2012 20:22
First satellite for Indian Navy elevates country’s military status

Jun 7, 2012 Ilya Kramnik – The Voice of Russia

 

India is preparing its first military satellite for launch. Once in its geostationary orbit, the satellite will carry out monitoring of the Earth's surface and provide communication functions in the interests of the Indian Navy. Thus, India becomes the fourth country whose naval forces include a satellite group.

 

The Indian Navy has always been one of the most powerful in the Asia-Pacific region. It only lacked a so-called “space component” to meet modern standards. And today the first element of this component is ready for launch scheduled for this month.

 

The new satellite’s tasks include observing the Earth's surface and ensuring uninterrupted satellite communication for the Indian Navy. It will provide sharp growth for the Indian Navy’s capabilities; the fleet will be able to exchange large amounts of information in real time. Theoretically, the launch of a military satellite may be the first phase in creating a full-fledged information network that will make it possible to coordinate actions of the whole fleet from one command post which provides remote targeting and target distribution. In order to create a full-fledged intelligence and information system, India also needs low-orbit satellites, patrol airplanes and unmanned aerial vehicles that could provide total coverage of the selected area. (For naval intelligence purposes, the Indian Navy is likely to buy the American P-8I aircraft. India is also going to increase the purchase of the Israeli drones Heron and Searcher Mark II).

 

Today only the US and NATO possess the complete set of relevant capabilities. Russia, Japan, and to a certain extent China have the potential to create such a system in a reasonable time. The launch of the Indian satellite means an expansion of the “elite club”, but it will take a lot of time for the Indian Navy to actually integrate these capabilities into its daily practice.

 

Placing the satellite into a geostationary orbit is an important task. Today, India does not possess a reliable enough carrier for its implementation. Theoretically, the placing into an orbit can be provided by means of a GSLV type missile, but the launchers’ statistics – four failures and one partial failure out of seven launches – cast doubt on the fact that the Indian military will trust the launch of their first satellite to an unreliable carrier.

 

So far there are no official reports about how, where, and by what means the satellite will be placed into orbit. There are not too many alternatives, and the Russian alternative seems to be the most probable. The geostationary orbit, in which a satellite takes a position strictly above the equator, provides additional benefits for India. In this case it provides virtually perfect conditions for observing the Indian Ocean, which is the Indian military’s main concern.

 

Preparations for the launch are not taking place in a vacuum; the Asia-Pacific region is becoming a scene of growing rivalry betweenthe great powers. In addition to the strengthening of China’s military and Indian progress in this sphere, the growth of Japanese potential and concentration of American forces in the region should be noted. By 2020, the US Navy is going to concentrate up to 60% of its battle ships, including six multi-purpose aircraft carrier battle groups, in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

It was just yesterday that the US began the re-targeting process in the Asia-Pacific region, and the change of priorities has been confirmed by organizational activities. For example, the disbandment of the US Navy 2nd fleet, historically responsible for the Atlantic theatre.

 

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has twice recently confirmed the intention to relocate the greater part of the US Navy to the Asia-Pacific region. This direction already enjoys priority in regards to the latest technical equipment. Practically half of all combat-ready F-22 fighter jets are concentrated in the Pacific Ocean. Bases in this region will be the first to receive F-35 aircraft, and it is to the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet that the new Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier will be handed.

 

The US strategy is quite clear: they are increasing their strength in accordance to the growth of possibilities of their main geopolitical rival, and for now it is definitely China. Pursuing this strategy, the US is trying to rely on Beijing’s natural opponents. After Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand, the US is trying to include both a somewhat aloof India and one-time enemy Vietnam in its strategy.

 

During his visit to India, Secretary Panetta said that India and the United States should conduct more regular and complex joint war games. Observers paid attention to the fact that this idea was expressed in New Delhi on the same day, when Russian President Vladimir Putin – who is in China on a state visit – called for the development of military cooperation with China.

 

Admittedly the United States have good chances for building an anti-Chinese coalition – traditionally Beijing is not too popular in the region. But there are two possible obstacles on this way. Tokyo historically does not enjoy the love of its neighbors either, and cooperation with India requires significant concessions in favor of this country, as well as taking its interests into account, because India is too serious a player for the role of a junior partner. The future launch of India’sfirst military satellite is yet more evidence of its ambitions and possibilities.

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