ISRO’s communication satellite GSAT-29 will soon launch from GSLV Mk III

ISRO’s communication satellite GSAT-29 will soon launch from GSLV Mk III

Why in News?

GSAT-29 is a high-throughput communication satellite developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Highlights:

• The satellite is through the second developmental flight of GSLV Mk III.
• The flight name is GSLV Mk III D2.
• The mission aims at providing high-speed bandwidth to Village Resource Centres (VRC) in rural areas.
• The two Ku and Ka operational payloads will provide communication services to Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern regions under Digital India programme.
• ISRO had launched another communication satellite, GSAT-6A, on March 2018 but lost it in space a day later.
• The GSAT-29 satellite itself is one of the planned Indian HTS quartets.
• The HTSs or high throughput satellites are being sent out to provide a vastly improved and faster Internet connectivity.
• GSAT-19, the first of the series, was sent up in June 2017 from Sriharikota.
• ISRO is also preparing for a PSLV mission to launch HySIS, a new variant of Earth observation satellites, along with 20-30 small commercial satellites.