Overview
- Liftoff is scheduled for 5:26 pm IST from Sriharikota, with the 24-hour countdown underway and all systems declared GO by ISRO.
- Weighing about 4,410 kg, CMS-03 (GSAT-7R) is the heaviest satellite to be launched from Indian soil into transfer orbit, flying on the LVM3-M5 in its fifth operational mission.
- ISRO plans insertion into an approximately 170 km × 29,970 km sub-GTO, followed by multiple Liquid Apogee Motor burns to raise and circularize the orbit over subsequent days.
- Built for the Indian Navy to replace GSAT-7, the multiband payload provides secure voice, data and video links across C, extended C and Ku bands over the Indian Ocean region.
- The flight marks a step toward reducing reliance on foreign launchers for heavy communications satellites as ISRO develops LVM3 performance upgrades for future missions.