Communication satellite GSAT-16 is being launched in the early morning of Saturday, December 6, at 2:09 a.m. IST, Indian Space Research Organisation said.
The satellite will add 48 transponders to the space agency’s fleet which currently offers 188 transponders to various government and private user agencies. Another 95 are leased from foreign satellite operators.
Late on Thursday, Paris-based European launch service company Arianespace, which is putting the satellite into orbit for ISRO, changed the plan hours before the flight citing rough weather in its Kourou launchpad in South America.
An Ariane-5 rocket will fly the 3,180-kg GSAT-16 along with another customer, US broadcast satellite DIRECTV-14.
ISRO advanced GSAT-16 by about six months to meet pressing capacity requirements of its customers.
