India successfully launches South Asia Satellite

South Asia Communication Satellite GSAT-9 was launched from the Sriharikota launch centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in coastal Andhra Pradesh on Friday evening. A 28-hour countdown began for the launch of the GSLV mission at 12.57 p.m. on Thursday, along with other pre-launch activities, ISRO said. The rocket, labelled GSLV F09, is slated to put the 2,230-kg South Asia Satellite or GSAT-9 into space. The communication spacecraft to carry 12 Ku-band transponders that can drive telecommunication, disaster management, broadcasting and direct to home TV, Internet activities, tele-education and telemedicine across the region. First announced by the Prime Minister in July 2014 as a gift to India's neighbours and a positive diplomatic gesture, it was then conceived as SAARC satellite. After Pakistan declined to participate, it includes the rest of South Asian neighbours: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, The Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The Indian government bears the satellite cost of ₹235 crore and a roughly equivalent cost of launching it on the GSLV rocket to a distance about 36,000 km in space. This will be the fourth successive GSLV flight powered by the indigenous cryogenic stage, which ISRO developed over two decades.