India Launches New Communications Satellite (GSAT-8 will be primarily used for DTH services.)

India's geostationary satellite GST-8 (GSAT-8 will be primarily used for DTH services.)was successfully put into orbit in the early hours of Saturday, 21st May, 2011.
The 3.1 tonne satellite lifted off at 2:11 am IST and successfully separated from the rocket's upper stage after 31 minutes, putting it in an elliptical equatorial geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) at 1,800 km above the Earth.
under control of ISRO's (Indian Space Research Organisation) Master Control Facility (MCF) facility at Hasan, about 180 km from Bangalore, the satellite will gradually be boosted to its final geostationary orbit at an altitude of about 36,000 km above the Earth in the next couple of days and its solar power panels will be deployed.