Isro launches satellite for direct-to-phone broadband

US-built communications satellite India's heaviest commercial launch till date

- POULOMI CHATTERJEE

INDIA ON WEDNESDAY carried out its heaviest commercial satellite launch till date, placing a US-built communications satellite into low Earth orbit in a mission that underscores the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro’s) expanding role in the global commercial launch market and its ability to handle high-value foreign payloads.

The mission involved the launch of BlueBird Block-2, a next-generation mobile broadband satellite developed by US-based AST SpaceMobile, aboard Isro’s LVM3 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Weighing about 6.5 tonne, the satellite is designed to deliver direct 4G and 5G connectivity to unmodified smartphones, particularly in remote and under-served regions where terrestrial mobile networks are limited or absent.