Satellites over Kourou

摘要

Antonov Airlines was mandated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) recently to transport a communications satellite from Bengaluru airport to Cayenne (French Guiana). The transport of the GSAT-31, which was successfully launched into a near-earth space orbit from French Guiana's Kourou spaceport on 6 February, took place in coordination with Flywell Aviation, from New Delhi, as per Isro's requirements. The group has been Ukrainian operator Antonov Airlines' GSA in the Indian Subcontinent since mid-2017. The shipment weighed approximately 18 t and included a 7.8 m container that was 4.5 m wide and 4 m high. Antonov Airlines' business development director Michael Goodisman said that "we worked with the customer to ensure that this sensitive equipment was loaded and transported safely." This included the aircraft crew taking care of the necessary temperature and pressure conditions during the flight and the re-fuelling stops of the Antonov AN-124-100.