India launched the heaviest satellite into space with its most powerful rocket (video)
Subscribe so you don't miss the latest and most exciting news from the world of science! The CMS-03 military communications satellite was launched using an LVM-3 launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Spaceport on Sunday, November 2. The rocket launched the 4,400 kg CMS-03 satellite into a geostationary transition orbit approximately 16 minutes after launch. According to ISRO, this is the heaviest communications satellite ever launched into geostationary orbit from Indian territory.
The CMS-03 satellite should enter geostationary orbit at an altitude of 35,786 kilometers above the Earth. At this height, the orbital speed corresponds to the speed of rotation of our planet, which allows space vehicles to continuously "hover" over one part of the Earth. Therefore, geostationary orbit is a popular destination for reconnaissance satellites and communications satellites such as CMS-03.
The new satellite will be a key communications satellite for the Indian Navy, replacing the GSAT-7 satellite launched in 2013. CMS-03 is designed to expand secure multiband communications for the Navy's growing high seas operations. It will provide real-time communications for naval operations, air defense and strategic command across a large ocean and land region. This launch was the eighth for the LVM-3 rocket, which first went into space in December 2014.
The previous launch took place in July 2023, when the rocket successfully sent India's Chandrayaan-3 lander to the moon. The 43. 5-meter-tall LVM-3 is India's most powerful missile. It can launch a payload weighing 8,000 kg into low Earth orbit. As Focus has already written, an anomaly was discovered at the landing site of the Chandrayaan-3 mission on the Moon. The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter took a picture of how the Chandrayaan-3 lander did what it could not do.