Indian to launch new satellite

INDIA: India is set to launch Sunday a communications satellite that will replace one destroyed last year when the rocket carrying it into space failed.

The 49-metre high satellite launch vehicle, or GSLV, will lift the satellite into space at 4:20 p.m. local time (1050 GMT) from Sriharikota space station in southern India, a spokesman for the space agency said here.

“The launch is crucial to the extent that the high-powered satellite will augment the country’s communication capacity and help meet increasing demand,” said the spokesman for Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation.

He cited a boom in telecommunications, from facsimile and Internet traffic to satellite television, video transmission and digital satellite newsgathering, whose requirements will be met by the Insat-4CR satellite.

Insat-4CR, weighing 2,130 kilograms, is equipped with 12 wideband channels that allow digital transmission on each at the same time by several video and audio networks.

Bangalore, Sunday, AFP