SRIHARIKOTA, India, Dec 24 — ISRO on Wednesday launched the 6,100-kg BlueBird Block-2 satellite, the heaviest foreign payload ever lifted from India, aboard the LVM3-M6 mission, expanding the country’s role in commercial space launches.
The satellite, owned by U.S.-based AST SpaceMobile, was successfully placed into low Earth orbit, ISRO said. It is part of a next-generation constellation designed to deliver cellular broadband connectivity directly to ordinary smartphones without terrestrial towers.
“LVM3-M6 has successfully injected the BlueBird Block-2 satellite into its designated orbit,” ISRO said, calling the flight a dedicated commercial mission.
The launch marked the sixth operational mission of the LVM3, ISRO’s heavy-lift launch vehicle. Developed domestically, LVM3 uses two solid strap-on boosters, a liquid propulsion core and a cryogenic upper stage.
ISRO said the rocket has a proven record, having earlier carried Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 to the Moon and launched OneWeb’s satellite batches into orbit.
The last LVM3 mission prior to Wednesday’s launch was the LVM3-M5/CMS-03, completed successfully on Nov. 2, further establishing the vehicle’s reliability for national and commercial missions.
