SpaceX carries an Indian satellite

Published 11 October 2026

On November 19, SpaceX's Falcon 9 launched India's GSAT-N2 from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft entered a super-geosynchronous transfer orbit with a perigee of two hundred and fifty kilometres and an apogee of 59,730 kilometres. After separation, ISRO's Master Control Facility at Hassan took over. The satellite's onboard propulsion raised its orbit toward the geostationary position. The mission joined a foreign launch provider to an Indian spacecraft and Indian control operations. It was a direct example of cooperation involving the same company whose consumer satellite network was at the centre of the spectrum dispute. Purchasing a launch from SpaceX and authorizing Starlink as a communications service remained separate decisions. isro.gov.in, GSAT-N2 Mission, 2024-11-28

By November 28, ISRO reported that GSAT-N2 had reached its final geostationary orbit and was drifting toward its assigned slot at sixty-eight degrees east. The satellite weighed 4,700 kilograms and carried a Ka-band high-throughput payload of forty-eight gigabits per second. Its thirty-two spot beams were designed for coverage across India, including the island territories. The three antenna reflectors had deployed, and ISRO said propulsion performance left enough fuel for the intended operating life. The next step was in-orbit testing with the ground communications infrastructure. Even after launch, orbit raising and deployment, operational service was described as dependent on successful tests. isro.gov.in, GSAT-N2 Mission, 2024-11-28

GSAT-N2 was NSIL's second demand-driven communications satellite. Its design included eight narrower user beams over the Northeast and twenty-four wider beams over the rest of India, with mainland hub stations supporting them. ISRO's technical description explained frequency reuse through a multibeam architecture. These characteristics show that the comparison was not between a sophisticated foreign network and an Indian system offering only old-style broad coverage. India's geostationary programme was also developing high-throughput, targeted capacity. The orbital arrangement differed from Starlink's, but both space and ground design mattered to the service. GSAT-N2's capacity had to be understood in its own coverage and application context, rather than placed beside a global constellation total as if the numbers measured the same thing. isro.gov.in, GSAT-N2: Enhancing India's Broadband Infrastructure