India to launch satellite by home-made rocket

NEW DELHI - India will launch a 2,000-kg telecommunication satellite, GSAT-14, from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota on Monday, which is to be put into space by the country's home-made heavy rocket geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle D5 (GSLV-D5), an official said Sunday.

This launch will be the first GSLV mission in three years, after the launch of two such rockets were unsuccessful in 2010. The 49-metre-tall GSLV will be fired by an indigenous cryogenic engine. The rocket itself has been fully assembled at Sriharikota spaceport.

"It is a major milestone for us. We have put best efforts to understand the technology and put it into operation," the head of the state-owned Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), K. Radhakrishnan, told the media.

GSAT-14 is to be launched as a replacement of EDUSAT satellite. It is equipped with 6 Ku and 6 Ext C band transponders to cover whole India in terms of coverage. The satellite also carries Ka band beacons to be used to study the impact of climate on the Ka band satellite communication links in the region.