The South Asia Satellite (designated GSAT-9), formerly known as SAARC Satellite, is a
geostationary communications
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...
and
meteorology satellite operated by the
Indian Space Research Organisation
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman of ...
for the
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, ...
(SAARC) region.
The satellite was launched on 5 May 2017. During the
18th SAARC summit
18 (eighteen) is the natural number following 17 and preceding 19.
In mathematics
* Eighteen is a composite number, its divisors being 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9. Three of these divisors (3, 6 and 9) add up to 18, hence 18 is a semiperfect number. ...
held in
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...
in 2014,
Indian Prime Minister
The prime minister of India ( IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the List of Prime Ministers of India, 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the List of chief ministers of Gujarat, Chief Minist ...
mooted the idea of a satellite serving the needs of SAARC member nations
as a part of his
neighbourhood first policy
Neighbourhood First Policy of India, a core component of India's foreign policy, focuses on peaceful relations and collaborative synergetic co-development with its South Asian neighbors of the Indian subcontinent encompassing a diverse range ...
.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...
,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountai ...
,
Maldives
The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives,, ) and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about from the A ...
,
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...
and
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
are the users of the multi-dimensional facilities provided by the satellite.
Pakistan "offered technical and monetary support"
which India rejected saying that it wanted the project to be a "gift" and multi-national collaboration would be time-consuming.
Pakistan later on declined to participate in the project citing India's refusal to collaboration and security reasons.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...
too was initially non-committal to the satellite
which led to renaming of satellite from "SAARC Satellite" to "South Asia Satellite." As of 2019 with exception of Pakistan, the satellite is in service with all SAARC countries.
The South Asia Satellite provides crucial information on tele-medicine, tele-education, banking and television broadcasting opportunities. It is also equipped with remote sensing state of the art technology which enables collection of real-time weather data and helps in observations of the geology of the South Asian nations.
Background
During the
Indian general elections campaign in 2014,
Prime Minister Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from V ...
hinted that
his foreign policy will actively focus on improving ties with
India's immediate neighbours which is being termed as
Neighbourhood first policy
Neighbourhood First Policy of India, a core component of India's foreign policy, focuses on peaceful relations and collaborative synergetic co-development with its South Asian neighbors of the Indian subcontinent encompassing a diverse range ...
in the
Indian media
The Indian media consists of several different types of communications of mass media: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Websites/portals. Indian media was active since the late 18th century. The print media s ...
. Modi invited all heads of state/heads of government of SAARC countries during his
swearing-in ceremony as Prime Minister of India and held bilateral talks with all of them individually, which was dubbed a "mini SAARC summit" by the media. India is only South Asian nation with
orbital launch capability and builds and operates
one of largest fleet of artificial satellites in world.
Modi said, "There is a lot of poverty in the SAARC nations and we need scientific solutions for this".
In his address to the
Sri Lankan Parliament in March 2015,
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the List of Prime Ministers of India, 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the List of chief ministers of Gujarat, Chief Minist ...
said "
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
will take full benefit of India's satellite for the SAARC Region. This should be in Space by December 2016".
Response from SAARC nations
The announcement of the satellite was generally met with favourable views by the
SAARC nations that supported the program, specifically from
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
and
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...
.
Pakistan
Pakistan maintains its own space program under its
Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission
The Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) ( ur, ) is the :Pakistan federal departments and agencies, executive and List of government space agencies, national space agency of Pakistan. It is headquartered at the capital city ...
(SUPARCO), which has launched satellites on Chinese satellite launch vehicles in the past.
Pakistan initially declared that it was "keen" to participate on the project, offering monetary and technical support.
However, Pakistan said it did not because "India was not willing to develop the project on a collaborative basis."
Pakistan also stated it was working on its own satellite under its existing space commitments, thus declined to join the project.
The Indian government declined Pakistani offers of technical and monetary help because it wanted the project to be an Indian "gift" and did not want to make it into a "SAARC project", and that collaborations with Pakistan would have taken some time.
Earlier on 27 June 2015,
ISRO chairman A. S. Kiran Kumar had announced that India and Pakistan would collaborate on developing the SAARC satellite with SUPARCO performing technical engineering under ISRO's guidance.
During the
70th UN meeting in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
held on 20 September 2015, officials from India and Pakistan debated over the ownership and control of the satellite.
On 2 October 2015, India announced that it had decided to go ahead with building the satellite, without Pakistan's consent.
On 23 March 2016,
Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the
Ministry of External Affairs of India said "Pakistan has decided to opt-out of the satellite project. So it cannot be called a SAARC satellite. It will be a South Asia satellite."
There were some reports that Pakistan had security concerns, especially regarding
espionage
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tang ...
.
However, the Pakistani foreign ministry said these reports were "unfounded".
[
]
Bangladesh
On 23 March 2017, Bangladesh signed the South Asia Satellite agreement with India. The agreement formally known as "Agreement between the Government of Republic of India and the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh concerning to orbit frequency co-ordination of 'South Asia Satellite' proposed at 48.E" would cover 12 transponders of the satellite from which, 1 will be gifted to Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...
.
Bangladesh has launched its first satellite Bangabandhu-1 on 12 May 2018. Citing the capacity of Thales Alenia Space
Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufactur ...
manufactured Bangabandhu-1 satellite, the Chairman of Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited (BSCL) Dr. Shahjahan Mahmood said, "''Our own satellite can be used for commercial purposes and we can also sell its capacity to other countries while South Asia Satellite will be used only for limited purposes and its capacity will never be sold''."
Bhutan
In November 2018, Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountai ...
announced that it is on track to begin using South Asia Satellite by the end of November 2018. Planned utilisation of allotted Ku-band
The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the ori ...
transponder includes connecting three off-grid blocks in remote areas of the country, national TV broadcast, emergency communications and backup for domestic/international voice connectivity.
Development
In November 2015, ISRO chairman A. S. Kiran Kumar stated that the satellite could be launched within 18 months of receiving approval from the SAARC member nations.[ It was proposed to build a satellite for the SAARC region with 12 ]Ku-band
The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the ori ...
transponders (36 MHz each) and launch it with the Indian GSLV Mk-II. The cost of the satellite was estimated to be about , and the total cost including operational costs and insurance comes to . The cost associated with the launch was met by the Government of India
The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...
.
The satellite will enable a full range of applications and services in the areas of telecommunication and broadcasting applications viz television (TV), direct-to-home
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...
(DTH), very small aperture terminals (VSATs), tele-education, tele-medicine and disaster management support. It will provide communication channels for better coordination during disaster management
Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actual ...
, and will help countries in mapping terrain and natural resources.
Satellite and payloads
GSAT
The GSAT (Geosynchronous Satellite) satellites are India's indigenously developed communications satellites, used for digital audio, data and video broadcasting. As of 5 December 2018, 20 GSAT satellites of ISRO have been launched out of which 14 ...
-9 carries 12 Ku band transponders; each participating South Asian Country has access to a dedicated transponder
In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''.
In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...
for their communications.
The standalone satellite has a liftoff mass of about 2,230 kg. GSAT
The GSAT (Geosynchronous Satellite) satellites are India's indigenously developed communications satellites, used for digital audio, data and video broadcasting. As of 5 December 2018, 20 GSAT satellites of ISRO have been launched out of which 14 ...
-9 is the first Indian satellite to use electric propulsion albeit partially. It carries only 25% of the normal chemical fuel package compared to other Indian satellites, a xenon
Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...
based electric propulsion system
Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from ...
is used for orbital functions of the spacecraft. GSAT-20 is expected to be the first fully electric propulsion system enabled satellite.
Launch
The satellite was launched on 5 May 2017 at 11:27 UTC aboard the GSLV
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is an expendable launch system operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). GSLV was used in fourteen launches from 2001 to 2021. Even though GSLV Mark III shares the name, it is a ...
-F09 rocket from the Second Launch Pad
Satish Dhawan Space Centre - SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range - SHAR) is a rocket launch centre ( spaceport) operated by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. Sriharikot ...
(SLP) of the Satish Dhawan
Satish Dhawan (25 September 1920 – 3 January 2002) was an Indian mathematician and aerospace engineer, widely regarded as the father of experimental fluid dynamics research in India. Born in Srinagar, Dhawan was educated in India and ...
spaceport in Sriharikota
Sriharikota is a Barrier island off the Bay of Bengal coast located in the Shar Project settlement of Tirupati district in Andhra Pradesh, India. It houses the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, one of the two satellite launch centres in India (t ...
, in the southern part of Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...
.
Orbit raising and station keeping
The launch was followed by a series of orbit-raising operations (using an on-board LAM
Lam or LAM may refer to:
Organizations
* Laguna Art Museum, California, US
* Lam Eng Rubber, a Malaysian manufacturer
* Lam Research, American semiconductor equipment company
* LAM Mozambique Airlines, flag carrier airline of Mozambique
* Librar ...
and chemical thrusters) to place the satellite in the intended geostationary orbital slot.
Reactions
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena
Maithripala Yapa Sirisena ( si, පල්ලෙවත්ත ගමරාළලාගේ මෛත්රීපාල යාපා සිරිසේන; ta, பல்லேவத்த கமராளலாகே மைத்திரி� ...
congratulated Modi using satellite technology and claimed that it would help uplift the standards of people.
See also
* GSAT-20
* Indian Space Research Organisation
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman of ...
* Neighbourhood first policy
Neighbourhood First Policy of India, a core component of India's foreign policy, focuses on peaceful relations and collaborative synergetic co-development with its South Asian neighbors of the Indian subcontinent encompassing a diverse range ...
References
{{Commons category, GSAT-9
GSAT satellites
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
Spacecraft launched by India in 2017
Spacecraft launched by GSLV rockets
Modi administration initiatives