Any official confirmation folks ? Is the GSAT 11 mission cancelled ?
Quote from: Jajar on 04/22/2018 04:09 pmAny official confirmation folks ? Is the GSAT 11 mission cancelled ?It will not be flying any time soon. It is unclear if it will be rescheduled.
This article says the launch of GSAT 11 is in June."Besides the military satellites, Isro will also launch its “heaviest satellite ever” Gsat-11 weighing 5.7 tonnes from French Guiana by June."https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/isro-to-launch-slew-of-military-satellites-soon/articleshow/63873638.cms
To me, this is fake news. Sorry...ISRO has not made any official announcement as of yet.
Peter B. de Selding writing in Space Intel Report confirms that the launch is cancelled as GSAT-11 is back in India due to some 'unexplained issues'. (Not able to gather any further details as I do not have membership in the site)https://www.spaceintelreport.com/last-minute-issues-force-recall-of-indias-gsat-11-to-india-may-launch-with-azerspace-intelsat-satellite-cancelled/
Maybe ISRO have found a common problem with the power supply in GSAT 6A and 11. That might explain the satellite returning to India, if that is indeed true.
and arrived:QuoteIndia’s GSAT-11 satellite arrives for its Arianespace Ariane 5 launch in MayThe protective container with GSAT-11 is unloaded at French Guiana’s Félix Eboué Airport.The first satellite for Arianespace’s Flight VA243, a dual-payload Ariane 5 mission scheduled for the second half of May, has touched down in French Guiana.Arriving Wednesday aboard a cargo jetliner that landed at Félix Eboué Airport near the French Guiana capital city of Cayenne, the Indian-built GSAT-11 spacecraft was then transferred by road to the Spaceport’s S5 payload preparation facility.GSAT-11 was designed, assembled and integrated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and will have an estimated liftoff mass of 5,870 kg. This advanced communications satellite is to provide multi-spot beam coverage over the Indian mainland and nearby islands, bringing significant advantages to the user community when compared with India’s existing INSAT/GSAT satellite systems.With its new system architecture and cutting-edge technology elements, GSAT-11 will generate a capacity of more than 12 Gbps for users from a single platform.http://www.arianespace.com/mission-update/gsat-11-arrival/
India’s GSAT-11 satellite arrives for its Arianespace Ariane 5 launch in MayThe protective container with GSAT-11 is unloaded at French Guiana’s Félix Eboué Airport.The first satellite for Arianespace’s Flight VA243, a dual-payload Ariane 5 mission scheduled for the second half of May, has touched down in French Guiana.Arriving Wednesday aboard a cargo jetliner that landed at Félix Eboué Airport near the French Guiana capital city of Cayenne, the Indian-built GSAT-11 spacecraft was then transferred by road to the Spaceport’s S5 payload preparation facility.GSAT-11 was designed, assembled and integrated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and will have an estimated liftoff mass of 5,870 kg. This advanced communications satellite is to provide multi-spot beam coverage over the Indian mainland and nearby islands, bringing significant advantages to the user community when compared with India’s existing INSAT/GSAT satellite systems.With its new system architecture and cutting-edge technology elements, GSAT-11 will generate a capacity of more than 12 Gbps for users from a single platform.
Did a Volga-Dnepr AN-124 return to Félix Eboué Airport recently, flight destination in India?
Quote from: zubenelgenubi on 04/23/2018 08:28 pmDid a Volga-Dnepr AN-124 return to Félix Eboué Airport recently, flight destination in India?Nothing on FlightRadar24 or FlightAware, but they tend to have gaps. When the satellite was delivered they don't have the flight arriving at Cayenne but they have the plane leaving.
Ariane 5 April 24, 2018Launch delay for VA243Due to additional technical checks with the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) GSAT-11 satellite, to be conducted from the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) located at Bangalore, the Ariane 5 launch initially planned for May 25, 2018, VA243, has been postponed.The next Arianespace launch will therefore be VA244, in July 2018. An Ariane 5 ES launch vehicle will orbit four more Galileo satellites for the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA).The launch of the Azerspace-2/Intelsat-38 satellite for Azercosmos and Intelsat has been rescheduled for this summer, following VA244. The planned date and the co-passenger will be announced shortly.The rest of the 2018 Arianespace launch manifest remains unchanged.
Quote from: gongora on 04/24/2018 02:29 amQuote from: zubenelgenubi on 04/23/2018 08:28 pmDid a Volga-Dnepr AN-124 return to Félix Eboué Airport recently, flight destination in India?Nothing on FlightRadar24 or FlightAware, but they tend to have gaps. When the satellite was delivered they don't have the flight arriving at Cayenne but they have the plane leaving.it takes time to "pack-up" a satellite, the call was made last week, I think it might take them a while to fly it back, also AN-124 flights are not sitting on a shelf, ordering one takes time, etc. etc. But it would be nice of either ISRO or Arianepace to do a PR release as all of French Guiana knows about it since last week....
Just over a fortnight after flying GSAT-11 out to Kourou for launch, the Indian Space Research Organisation has recalled the heaviest communication satellite it has built. The reason is said to be for conducting additional technical checks in Bengaluru, where it was built.ISRO's spokesman and officials were not reachable for comment.
The European space transporter said on Tuesday that it has postponed the Ariane 5 launch numbered VA 243 that was initially planned for May 26, 2018 in the wee IST hours "due to additional technical checks with ISRO's GSAT-11 satellite, to be conducted from the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) at Bangalore." GSAT-11 is aimed at providing multiple spot beam coverage in Ka and Ku bands over the Indian region and nearby islands. Its 12 gbps service is expected to be far more superior to older Indian communication satellites.
Mathieu Weiss, space counsellor in the French embassy in Bengaluru and MD of the India liaison office of French space agency CNES (which is associated with the Ariane rocket design,) said, "These things happen in the space sector. We fully understand that the customer has to make thorough technical checks. The spacecraft being an exceptional satellite, one has to be super cautious in launching it.
The rest of the 2018 Arianespace launch manifest remains unchanged.
from the Arianespace press-releaseQuoteThe rest of the 2018 Arianespace launch manifest remains unchanged.How am I to understand that? Of course, the rest of the launch schedule changes.The new partner for Azerspace-2, already had a companion, which must be paired again for a later launch. and so on...I do not think that two Ariane launches between Galileo and BepiColombo. I'm afraid the time is not enough and they lose a launch slot in 2018.