Picture a young jawan posted on a wind-lashed ridge in Ladakh, with nothing but rock and ice between him and the nearest town. For him, the difference between isolation and safety is a single thing: a working link to his commanders. By the middle of 2028, that link is expected to come from a satellite the Indian Army can finally call its own.&nbsp;Today, oddly enough, the Army has no such satellite. The Air Force and the Navy each have one, but the Army has been sharing the Air Force's satellite, GSAT-7A. Think of it as several families drawing water from one neighbour's tap. It works, but there is only so much to go around, and the owner's needs come first. For a force with lakhs of personnel scattered across deserts, jungles and the highest mountains on Earth, that arrangement has long felt inadequate.&nbsp;Senior officials said on Monday, 19 October, that ISRO is expected to launch the Army’s first dedicated communication satellite around mid-2028. Named GSAT-7B, it was originally due in November 2027, but technical difficulties have pushed the launch back by about six months. The groundwork was laid in March 2023, when the Ministry of Defence signed a ₹3,000-crore contract with NewSpace India Limited, better known as NSIL, the commercial company through which ISRO builds satellites for paying customers. That contract answered a need the Army had been raising for years.&nbsp;What will this satellite actually do? At five tonnes, or 5,000 kilograms, it will be the heaviest communication satellite India has ever built. It will sit in what engineers call a geostationary orbit, which simply means it travels around the Earth at exactly the speed the planet turns, so from the ground it seems to hang motionless over the same spot, like a lamp post fixed high above the subcontinent. From that height, a radio message can be bounced off the satellite from one valley to another, leaping over the mountains that ordinarily block signals. It will connect soldiers, units, weapon systems, aircraft and other essential equipment, letting commanders issue orders, coordinate troops and manage both routine duties and battlefield operations around the clock, securely and without interruption, even at the remotest border post.&nbsp;The real test, officials say, comes in war. One of the first things an enemy does is cut the ground communication lines, by striking towers and cutting cables. A satellite overhead keeps the conversation going when everything below has gone silent.&nbsp;But there is a catch, and it has a name: China. Beijing is rapidly expanding its space capabilities and already has jammers, which are devices that flood a satellite's frequency with electronic noise, much like shouting over someone to drown out their voice. It is also known to be developing weapons meant to disable or destroy satellites altogether. The lesson for India is sobering. Owning a satellite is only half the task; the other half is keeping it safe.&nbsp;GSAT-7B is one piece of a larger plan. The Navy received its new satellite, GSAT-7R, last November, when ISRO launched it to replace the ageing Rukmini. Built entirely in India, it lets warships, submarines, aircraft and shore-based control centres talk securely across the open sea. Just last week, the Ministry of Defence signed a second contract with NSIL, worth ₹2,563 crore, for a fresh Air Force satellite called GSAT-7C, also fully Indian-made, so that aircraft and ground systems can stay in constant touch. In short, each service will soon have its own voice in space.&nbsp;Talking is one thing; watching is another. Alongside these communication satellites, India is building a separate fleet of satellites whose job is to observe the ground, in effect unblinking watchmen above the planet. In October 2024, the Cabinet Committee on Security, the Prime Minister's top body for security decisions, approved the third phase of the Space Based Surveillance programme. The ₹26,968-crore plan will put 52 military satellites into orbit over the next three years. It is run by the Defence Space Agency, which sits under the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, the office that helps the three services work as one. ISRO will build and launch 21 of these satellites, and private Indian companies will supply the remaining 31.&nbsp;All of this rests on a shared rulebook. Last September, at the Combined Commanders' Conference in Kolkata, the armed forces released the Joint Military Space Doctrine, which lays out how the Army, Navy and Air Force should use space together. A National Military Space Policy is now being drafted to protect India's satellites and prepare for threats beyond the atmosphere.&nbsp;For the soldier on that frozen ridge, every policy and programme comes down to one assurance: when he calls, someone will hear.

GSAT-7B is one piece of a larger plan. The Navy received its new satellite, GSAT-7R, last November, when ISRO launched it to replace the ageing Rukmini. Built entirely in India, it lets warships, submarines, aircraft and shore-based control centres talk securely across the open sea. 

Picture a young jawan posted on a wind-lashed ridge in Ladakh, with nothing but rock and ice between him and the nearest town. For him, the difference between isolation and safety is a single thing: a working link to his commanders. By the middle of 2028, that link is expected to come from a satellite the Indian Army can finally call its own. Today, oddly enough, the Army has no such satellite. The Air Force and the Navy each have one, but the Army has been sharing the Air Force's satellite, GSAT-7A. Think of it as several families drawing water from one neighbour's tap. It works, but there is only so much to go around, and the owner's needs come first. For a force with lakhs of personnel scattered across deserts, jungles and the highest mountains on Earth, that arrangement has long felt inadequate. Senior officials said on Monday, 19 October, that ISRO is expected to launch the Army’s first dedicated communication satellite around mid-2028. Named GSAT-7B, it was originally due in November 2027, but technical difficulties have pushed the launch back by about six months. The groundwork was laid in March 2023, when the Ministry of Defence signed a ₹3,000-crore contract with NewSpace India Limited, better known as NSIL, the commercial company through which ISRO builds satellites for paying customers. That contract answered a need the Army had been raising for years. What will this satellite actually do? At five tonnes, or 5,000 kilograms, it will be the heaviest communication satellite India has ever built. It will sit in what engineers call a geostationary orbit, which simply means it travels around the Earth at exactly the speed the planet turns, so from the ground it seems to hang motionless over the same spot, like a lamp post fixed high above the subcontinent. From that height, a radio message can be bounced off the satellite from one valley to another, leaping over the mountains that ordinarily block signals. It will connect soldiers, units, weapon systems, aircraft and other essential equipment, letting commanders issue orders, coordinate troops and manage both routine duties and battlefield operations around the clock, securely and without interruption, even at the remotest border post. The real test, officials say, comes in war. One of the first things an enemy does is cut the ground communication lines, by striking towers and cutting cables. A satellite overhead keeps the conversation going when everything below has gone silent. But there is a catch, and it has a name: China. Beijing is rapidly expanding its space capabilities and already has jammers, which are devices that flood a satellite's frequency with electronic noise, much like shouting over someone to drown out their voice. It is also known to be developing weapons meant to disable or destroy satellites altogether. The lesson for India is sobering. Owning a satellite is only half the task; the other half is keeping it safe. GSAT-7B is one piece of a larger plan. The Navy received its new satellite, GSAT-7R, last November, when ISRO launched it to replace the ageing Rukmini. Built entirely in India, it lets warships, submarines, aircraft and shore-based control centres talk securely across the open sea. Just last week, the Ministry of Defence signed a second contract with NSIL, worth ₹2,563 crore, for a fresh Air Force satellite called GSAT-7C, also fully Indian-made, so that aircraft and ground systems can stay in constant touch. In short, each service will soon have its own voice in space. Talking is one thing; watching is another. Alongside these communication satellites, India is building a separate fleet of satellites whose job is to observe the ground, in effect unblinking watchmen above the planet. In October 2024, the Cabinet Committee on Security, the Prime Minister's top body for security decisions, approved the third phase of the Space Based Surveillance programme. The ₹26,968-crore plan will put 52 military satellites into orbit over the next three years. It is run by the Defence Space Agency, which sits under the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, the office that helps the three services work as one. ISRO will build and launch 21 of these satellites, and private Indian companies will supply the remaining 31. All of this rests on a shared rulebook. Last September, at the Combined Commanders' Conference in Kolkata, the armed forces released the Joint Military Space Doctrine, which lays out how the Army, Navy and Air Force should use space together. A National Military Space Policy is now being drafted to protect India's satellites and prepare for threats beyond the atmosphere. For the soldier on that frozen ridge, every policy and programme comes down to one assurance: when he calls, someone will hear.

GSAT-7B is one piece of a larger plan. The Navy received its new satellite, GSAT-7R, last November, when ISRO launched it to replace the ageing Rukmini. Built entirely in India, it lets warships, submarines, aircraft and shore-based control centres talk securely across the open sea.&nbsp;

Skyborne sentinels: How GSAT-7B gives the Indian Army its own eye in orbit

Indian Navy's GSAT-7R (CMS-03) communication satellite that was launched on Sunday, (Nov 2nd) by the Indian Space agency ISRO's LVM3 rocket, has been sequentially raised into its final orbit. "The spacecraft is in the required circular orbit that is about 36,000kms above the Earth," ISRO Chief Dr. V. Narayanan told WION.&nbsp;<h2>Why is orbit raising crucial for a communication satellite ?</h2>&nbsp;Typically, all communication satellites are launched into an initial, temporary orbit known as Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). Think of its like a transit halt. Satellites remain in GTO for barely a week, after which they are gradually pushed to their designated orbits. GTO is an elliptical or egg-shaped orbit, where the satellite circles very close above the Earth and then moves very far away from the Earth, all during a single revolution around the Earth. A satellite in a GTO orbit would be 170-200kms above Earth at its nearest approach (perigee) and about 36,000kms above the Earth at its farthest approach (apogee).&nbsp;To enable communication or broadcast over a vast region(almost one-third of the Earth), a satellite must be placed in a circular orbit 36,000kms above the Earth's equator, this is known as a Geostationary orbit. Therefore, satellites launched into GTO have to fire their engines while at perigee and raise themselves to the Geostationary orbit.&nbsp;As the name suggests, Geostationary orbit is one where the satellite is exactly in sync with the Earth's 24-hour rotation period. Therefore, the GSAT-7R satellite which is placed 36,000kms above the Indian landmass would always remain above the Indian landmass, because its rotation is in complete sync with the Earth. Because of its vantage point high above India and the Indian ocean region, it can provide coverage in the vast maritime region surrounding the subcontinent.For context, this is why DTH TV antennae are all permanently pointing to a fixed location in the sky. The antennae are oriented towards a specific Geostationary satellite, one that appears stationary relative to a region on Earth.&nbsp;Owing to lifting power limitations of its LVM3 rocket which can only carry 4,000lg to GTO, ISRO hurled the GSAT-7R satellite into a lower-than-GTO orbit. The rocket placed the satellite in an orbit that is 170kms(perigee) at its closest approach to Earth and about 26,700kms(apogee) at its farthest approach to Earth. Thereafter, ISRO had issued multiple commands to fire the satellite's engines and place it in a 36,000kms circular orbit, where it is equidistant from Earth.&nbsp;<h2>Why is GSAT-7R a significant strategic asset ?</h2>&nbsp;Weighing 4,400kg, GSAT-7R or CMS-03 is India's largest military communications satellite. It will enable secure and real-time data, video, voice connectivity between Indian Navy ships, submarines, aircraft, and Maritime Operations Centres. For India, it is also the heaviest satellite launched from home soil.&nbsp;According to the Indian Navy, the satellite carries components that are specifically developed to meet their operational requirements. The satellite is meant to provide telecommunications coverage across the Indian ocean region, and enhance the Navy's space-based communications and Maritime domain awareness capabilities.&nbsp;The CMS-03/GSAT-7R is a replacement for the ageing GSAT-7 that ISRO built for the Indian Navy in 2013. The 2,650kg GSAT-7 was launched from overseas aboard Europe's Ariane rocket in August 2013, as ISRO did not possess the rocketry muscle power to lift such a heavy satellite at the time. Therefore, ISRO paid the European firm to ferry the Indian satellite to space.&nbsp; &nbsp;

To enable communication or broadcast over a vast region(almost one-third of the Earth), a satellite must be placed in a circular orbit 36,000kms above the Earths equator, this is known as a Geostationary orbit.

Indian Navy's GSAT-7R (CMS-03) communication satellite that was launched on Sunday, (Nov 2nd) by the Indian Space agency ISRO's LVM3 rocket, has been sequentially raised into its final orbit. "The spacecraft is in the required circular orbit that is about 36,000kms above the Earth," ISRO Chief Dr. V. Narayanan told WION. Why is orbit raising crucial for a communication satellite ? Typically, all communication satellites are launched into an initial, temporary orbit known as Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). Think of its like a transit halt. Satellites remain in GTO for barely a week, after which they are gradually pushed to their designated orbits. GTO is an elliptical or egg-shaped orbit, where the satellite circles very close above the Earth and then moves very far away from the Earth, all during a single revolution around the Earth. A satellite in a GTO orbit would be 170-200kms above Earth at its nearest approach (perigee) and about 36,000kms above the Earth at its farthest approach (apogee). To enable communication or broadcast over a vast region(almost one-third of the Earth), a satellite must be placed in a circular orbit 36,000kms above the Earth's equator, this is known as a Geostationary orbit. Therefore, satellites launched into GTO have to fire their engines while at perigee and raise themselves to the Geostationary orbit. As the name suggests, Geostationary orbit is one where the satellite is exactly in sync with the Earth's 24-hour rotation period. Therefore, the GSAT-7R satellite which is placed 36,000kms above the Indian landmass would always remain above the Indian landmass, because its rotation is in complete sync with the Earth. Because of its vantage point high above India and the Indian ocean region, it can provide coverage in the vast maritime region surrounding the subcontinent. For context, this is why DTH TV antennae are all permanently pointing to a fixed location in the sky. The antennae are oriented towards a specific Geostationary satellite, one that appears stationary relative to a region on Earth. Owing to lifting power limitations of its LVM3 rocket which can only carry 4,000lg to GTO, ISRO hurled the GSAT-7R satellite into a lower-than-GTO orbit. The rocket placed the satellite in an orbit that is 170kms(perigee) at its closest approach to Earth and about 26,700kms(apogee) at its farthest approach to Earth. Thereafter, ISRO had issued multiple commands to fire the satellite's engines and place it in a 36,000kms circular orbit, where it is equidistant from Earth. Why is GSAT-7R a significant strategic asset ? Weighing 4,400kg, GSAT-7R or CMS-03 is India's largest military communications satellite. It will enable secure and real-time data, video, voice connectivity between Indian Navy ships, submarines, aircraft, and Maritime Operations Centres. For India, it is also the heaviest satellite launched from home soil. According to the Indian Navy, the satellite carries components that are specifically developed to meet their operational requirements. The satellite is meant to provide telecommunications coverage across the Indian ocean region, and enhance the Navy's space-based communications and Maritime domain awareness capabilities. The CMS-03/GSAT-7R is a replacement for the ageing GSAT-7 that ISRO built for the Indian Navy in 2013. The 2,650kg GSAT-7 was launched from overseas aboard Europe's Ariane rocket in August 2013, as ISRO did not possess the rocketry muscle power to lift such a heavy satellite at the time. Therefore, ISRO paid the European firm to ferry the Indian satellite to space.

To enable communication or broadcast over a vast region(almost one-third of the Earth), a satellite must be placed in a circular orbit 36,000kms above the Earth's equator, this is known as a Geostationary orbit.

Indian Navy's GSAT-7R satellite is at its final destination: ISRO Chief

gsat-satellite

Gsat Satellite, News on Gsat Satellite, stories on Gsat Satellite, articles on Gsat Satellite, Gsat Satellite stories at Wion, Gsat Satellite news, Gsat Satellite latest news

gsat satellite

Skyborne sentinels: How GSAT-7B gives the Indian Army its own eye in orbit

Indian Navy's GSAT-7R satellite is at its final destination: ISRO Chief