GSAT-12 was a communication satellite designed and developed by the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...

. It was the second satellite to be launched and placed on a GTO using

PSLV The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite ...

Satellite

GSAT-12 was considered to be a replacement of the aged satellite INSAT-3B. It provided services like tele-education, tele-medicine, disaster management support and satellite internet access.

Payloads

GSAT-12 was equipped with 12 Extended C-band transponders.

Launch

GSAT-12 was launched onboard PSLV-XL C17 from second launch pad of

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Satish Dhawan Space Centre – SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range – SHAR) is the primary spaceport of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh. The spaceport is located on an isl ...

on July 15, 2011. The tentative life of satellite was 8 years.

Replacement and relocation

While GSAT-12 was still operational a replacement satellite CMS-01''(formerly GSAT-12R)'' was launched on 17 December 2020. GSAT-12 was relocated from 83°E slot to 48°E slot on 19 March 2021.

End of mission

In March 2023 GSAT-12 was retired from its operational service. After seven maneuvers to raise the satellite to a circular

graveyard orbit A graveyard orbit, also called a junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an Orbit (physics), orbit that lies away from common operational orbits. One significant graveyard orbit is a supersynchronous orbit well beyond geosynchronous orbit. Some satellit ...

, 390 km above GEO belt.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2011 GSAT satellites Spacecraft launched in 2011 2011 in India