India’s powerful GSAT-6A satellite has been lost shortly after its launch on March 29th. The satellite seemed to launch well and achieved its first orbit-raising manoeuvre.  The LAM (liquid apogee motor) engine worked perfectly fine, and the first orbit raising manoeuvre was a success, and the satellite reached the right spot as intended, a source told The Times of India.

A follow-on orbit-raising move was planned for Saturday with a second engine firing for 53 minutes as planned and ground-technicians received data for about 4 minutes following the engine firing, but then the data-stream ended.

India Space Research Organization (ISRO) engineers say that the third – and final – planned engine firing on April 1st did not happen, although efforts are underway to attempt to recommunicate with the satellite.

The loss – if confirmed – is considerable, and means an interruption to the nation’s plans for broadcasting and communicating with hand-held devices and tablets.

Other posts by :

1. Bank: “Charter racing to the bottom”
2. SpaceX IPO in June?
3. Russia postpones Starlink rival
4. Why don’t lawmakers like Netflix?
5. Viasat taps Ex-Im Bank to finance satellite
6. Bank: TeraWave not a direct threat to AST SpaceMobile
7. SpaceX lines up banks for IPO
8. SES to FCC: “Don’t auction more than 160 MHz of C-band”
9. Morgan Stanley downgrades Iridium

Categories: Articles, DTH/Satellite