Isro's Gsat-18 lifts off from French Guiana

Just 10 days after the successful launch of ScatSat-1 and seven other satellites, India's space programme scored another triumph ith the flawless launch of a high-power communication satellite, Gsat-18.
The 3,404 kg Gsat-18, which has 48 communication transponders and a 15-year mission span, was launched by Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket at 2 am IST on Thursday from the European spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana. The lift off had earlier been postponed by 24 hours on account of foul weather at Kourou on Wednesday .
The 48 communication transponders in C-band, upper extended C-band and Ku-band will provide various services to the country. It is purely a civilian satellite. It will strengthen Isro's current fleet of 14 operational communication satellites.
Along with Gsat-18, Skymaster 11 of the Australian operator National Broadband Network was deployed in orbit in the same mission.In the flight sequence, Skymaster 11 was placed in orbit first, followed by Gsat-18 four minutes later.
After a flight of 32 minutes and 28 seconds, GSAT-18 separated from the Ariane 5 upper stage in an elliiptical geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 251.7 km and an apogee (farthest point to earth) of 35,888 km, inclined at an angle of six degrees to the equator. Isro's master control facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka took over the command and control of GSAT-18 immediately after its separation from the launch vehicle. Preliminary health checks of the satellite revealed its normal health. In the coming days, orbit raising manoeuvres will be performed to place GSAT-18 satellite in the geostationary orbit (36,000 km above the equator) by using the satellite's propulsion system. After the completion of orbit raising operations, the two solar arrays and both the antenna reflectors of GSAT-18 will be deployed.
Following this, the satellite will be put in its final orbital configuration. The communication payloads of GSAT-18 will then be experimentally turned on.After the successful completion of all the in-orbit tests, GSAT-18 will be ready for operational use.