overview

Launch date
January 16, 2020
Payload(s)
EUTELSAT KONNECT, GSAT-30
Launch vehicle
Ariane 5 ECA
Launch site
Spaceport, French Guiana (Guiana Space Center)
Customer(s)
Eutelsat, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
Prime contractor(s)
Thales Alenia Space, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
Orbit
Geostationary transfer orbit (GTO)
Status
Success

mission
description

For its initial flight of 2020, Arianespace will orbit two telecommunications satellites using an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Center: EUTELSAT KONNECT for the operator Eutelsat; and GSAT-30 for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

Arianespace will confirm its leadership in the geostationary launch services market segment through this 107th Ariane 5 mission, to be performed as the company celebrates 40 years since its creation.

Between 4:05 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. (Jan. 16)
Washington, D.C.
Between 6:05 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. (Jan. 16)
Kourou, French Guiana
Between 21:05 and 23:00 (Jan. 16)
Universal time (UTC)
Between 10:05 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. (Jan. 16/17)
Paris, France
Between 2:35 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. (Jan. 17)
New Delhi, India

Payloads

EUTELSAT KONNECT

EUTELSAT KONNECT will be the 34th Eutelsat satellite launched by Arianespace since its first mission for this operator, which deployed EUTELSAT-1 F1 in 1983.

Eutelsat Communications is established in Paris, with offices and teleports located around the globe. Eutelsat provides capacity on nearly 40 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies.

Once in orbit, EUTELSAT KONNECT will offer total capacity of 75 Gbps and by next autumn will allow the operator to provide Internet access services for companies and individuals alike at up to 100 Mbps. The satellite will help to fight against the digital divide by bringing broadband Internet across 40 countries in Africa and 15 countries across Europe.

In Africa, EUTELSAT KONNECT also will, through the establishment of public Wi-Fi terminals, share Internet access between several users, marketed in the form of coupons that can be paid via mobile phone.

The new EUTELSAT KONNECT satellite features all-electric propulsion and operates in Ka-band. It is the first to use Thales Alenia Space’s all-electric Spacebus NEO platform, developed under the Neosat Partnership Project conducted by the European and French space agencies (ESA and CNES). More robust, more modular, more powerful, more innovative, more flexible, this platform is perfectly adapted to operators’ expectations in the evolving telecommunication market, and particlularly well positioned  for very demanding VHTS missions.

EUTELSAT KONNECT will allow the in-orbit validation of the complete end-to-end system of the new Spacebus Neo product line, including the fully-electric orbit-raising phase.

GSAT-30

Arianespace will orbit GSAT-30 on the initial Ariane 5 launch in 2020, after delivering GSAT-31 for ISRO one year ago.

To be installed as flight VA251’s lower passenger, GSAT-30 is a telecommunications satellite designed and manufactured by ISRO. To be positioned at a longitude of 83° East, it will provide high-quality television, telecommunications and broadcasting services over Indian mainland and Islands.

GSAT-30 is configured on ISRO’s enhanced I-3K platform to provide communications services from geostationary orbit in C- and Ku-band for a lifetime greater than 15 years.

By operating GSAT-30, ISRO will – once again – foster the use of space to help bridge the digital divide in the Indian subcontinent as part of its ambitious space program. These objectives are to develop India by focusing on all types of space applications, including navigation, Earth observation, telecommunications and broadcasts of educational programs, while pursuing science research and planetary exploration.

For more than 30 years, France and India have developed exemplary cooperation in the space field.

Since the launch of India’s APPLE experimental satellite on Ariane Flight L03 in 1981, Arianespace has orbited 23 satellites and signed 24 launch contracts with the Indian space agency.

The orbiting of GSAT-30 marks another demonstration of the strong bond uniting Europe and India in space cooperation.

GSAT-30 will replace the Insat 4A satellite in orbit.