GSAT-7A- ISRO’s ‘angry bird

Why is it in news?

• Recently ISRO launched GSAT-7A which is meant to enhance the communication infrastructure of the Indian Air Force on GSLV-F11.

GSAT-7A and GSLV-F11

• GSAT-7A
  1. Weight- 2,250 kg.
  2. Mission life- 8 years.
  3. Orbit- Geostationary Orbit.
  4. Purpose-
     1. To provide communication capability to users in Ku-band over the Indian region.
     2. To enhance the range of communication and also to aid in aircraft to aircraft communication.

• GSLV-F11:
  1.  ISRO’s fourth generation launch vehicle with three stages.
  2. First stage- The four liquid strap-ons and a solid rocket motor at the core form the first stage of the launch vehicle.
  3. Second stage- It is equipped with a high thrust engine using liquid fuel.
  4. Third stage- Cryogenic Upper Stage.

• The satellite is expected to enable the force to interlink different ground radar stations, ground airbase and airborne early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft.
• The GSLV-F11 injects GSAT-7A into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) and it is placed in its final Geostationary Orbit using onboard propulsion systems.
• It is seventh launch of 2018 from Sriharikota and marks the 69th mission of GSLV-F11 for ISRO.
• With this launch ISRO completed 17 missions in year 2018.

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