On Wednesday morning, India's 40th communication satellite GSAT-31 was successfully put into orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket belonging to Arianespace. This marked a good start of the year for ISRO.

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The launch was welcomed by people on social media. Among those who expressed their happiness, was Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra group. Mahindra tweeted that he is losing track of number of launches by ISRO. "I’m now losing track of the number of launches by #ISRO That is a true sign of excellence: To make your very complex achievements seem so effortless that people take them for granted...," he tweeted.

"It gives me great pleasure on the successful launch of GSAT-31 spacecraft on board Ariane-5," Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) Director S Pandian said at Kourou soon after the launch. Congratulation to Arianespace on the successful launch and precise injection of satellite into the orbit," he added.

The GSAT-31 is a "high power" communication satellite with Ku-band, and it is going to serve and replace some of the satellites that are going to expire soon, he said further.

GSAT-31 weights about 2,535-kg and would augment the Ku-band transponder capacity in geostationary orbit. Mission life is said to be 15 years. GSAT-31 will be used for supporting VSAT networks, Television uplinks, Digital Satellite news gathering, DTH television services, cellular backhaul connectivity and many applications.