India selects Falcon 9 for communications satellite launch

WASHINGTON — The commercial arm of India’s space agency ISRO announced Jan. 2 it will launch a large communications satellite later this year on a SpaceX Falcon 9, further underscoring SpaceX’s dominance in the global launch market.

New Space India Ltd. (NSIL), the arm of ISRO responsible for commercial launch and satellite services, said it signed a contract with SpaceX for the Falcon 9 launch of the GSAT-20 communications satellite in the second quarter of 2024. NSIL did not disclose terms of the deal.

GSAT-20, also known as GSAT-N2, is the second “demand-driven”…