5.8-tonne GSAT-11 ready for launch-A part of ISRO’s new satellite fleet for high-speed Internet services, it will take off from French Guiana

• A team of top officials and engineers of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), now stationed in the Guiana Space Centre, South America, is going over the last steps before it sees off the heaviest Indian communication satellite, GSAT-11, to its space orbit.
• The liftoff is slated for the wee hours of December 5, India time, but from half way across the globe.
• GSAT-11 is part of ISRO’s new family of high-throughput communication satellite (HTS) fleet that will drive the country's Internet broadband from space to untouched areas; the broadband domain is now ruled by underground fibre and covers partial and convenient locations.
• The HTSs will also be the backbone of pan-India digital or easy Internet-based programmes and services — such as Digital India, Bharat Net for rural e-governance, and commercial and public sector VSAT Net service providers.
• Its co-passenger is South Korea’s GEO-KOMPSAT-2A, a meteorology satellite.

The Hindu