GSAT-18 is an Indian communications satellite. Built by ISRO and operated by INSAT, it carries 24 C-band, 12 extended C-band, and 12 Ku-band transponders.
The satellite was launched on 5 October 2016 at approximately 20:30 UTC aboard an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.[3][5] The launch vehicle inserted the satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, and once in service it will occupy the orbital slot at 74° East longitude.[1][6] The total cost of the satellite and launch services was about US$153 million.[7]
GSAT-18 was originally scheduled to launch on 12 July 2016 alongside Japan's Superbird-8 satellite, but a shipping mishap which damaged Superbird-8 forced a delay in the launch schedule.[8][9]Arianespace later paired GSAT-18 with Australia's Sky Muster II for a 4 October 2016 launch.[10] The launch was delayed 24 hours to 5 October due to excessively high crosswinds at the launch site.[11]
Orbit raising and station keeping
Orbit raising operations were made using an on-board LAM and chemical thrusters[2] to place the satellite in the intended geostationary orbital slot.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
