GSAT-20

GSAT-20 (also known as CMS-03 or GSAT-N2) is a communication satellite being developed by Indian Space Research Organisation and will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9. The GSAT-20 satellite is funded, owned and operated by New Space India Limited. The entire capacity onboard CMS-02 satellite will be leased to Dish TV. GSAT-20 will be a continuation of GSAT series of communication satellites. The satellite is intended to add data transmission capacity to the communication infrastructure required by Smart Cities Mission of India.

Payload
The satellite features a Ka-band high-throughput communications payload with 70 Gbit/s throughput utilizing 40 beams offering HTS capacity of nearly 48Gpbs. Each beam will have 2 polarisations, effectively making them 80 beams.

Launch
The satellite was initially expected to be launched in 2024 on an LVM 3,  but shifted to Falcon 9 due to the satellite being 700 kg overweight for a successful launch on indigenous platforms.

Hence, the commercial arm of ISRO ,New Space India Limited has signed a contract with SpaceX for a possible liftoff in the second quarter of 2024. The SpaceX deal also signifies a significant as till now India had relied heavily on the France led Arianespace consortium to launch its the heavy communication satellites, particularly on the now retired Ariane 5, which ISRO was hoping as a backup. The fact that the next few launches of the Ariane 6, its successor having been both booked and delayed for launch, ISRO turned to SpaceX. India's own rockets lack the capacity for launching very heavy satellites to the geostationary orbit beyond 4 ton class, a problem that is planned to be fixed with the introduction of the NGLV.