BENGALURU: India's latest communication satellite

GSAT-16

will be launched early on Saturday from Kourou in

French Guiana

after it was deferred due to inclement weather at the launch base,

Isro

said on Friday.

"Launch is rescheduled on early morning of December 06, at 2.09am (IST) from French Guiana," Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) said on its website.

Isro had last night announced that due to inclement weather, the launch of GSAT-16 onboard

Ariane

5 VA221 which was scheduled for 2.08am on Friday (IST) had been deferred to a later date.

GSAT-16 is designed to augment the national space capacity in communication services.

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With lift-off mass of 3,181kg, GSAT-16 is configured to carry a total of 48 communication transponders, the largest number of transponders carried by a communication satellite developed by the Isro so far.

The mission operation control room at the Isro center in Bangalore. (Getty Images file photo)

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Facing capacity crunch, Isro has leased 95 transponders on foreign satellites mainly for the use of private TV broadcasters.

The satellite will boost public and private TV and radio services, large-scale Internet and telephone operations.

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An Ariane-5 rocket, carrying two telecommunication satellites Eutelsat 25B/ Eshail1 (France/Qatar) and GSAT-7 (India) blasts off from the European space centre of Kourou, French Guiana on August 30, 2013. (Getty Images file photo)

GSAT-16, which would replace

INSAT-3E

, decommissioned prematurely in April, has a designated on orbit operational life of 12 years. It will be the 18th satellite to be launched by Ariane space for Isro.

In the dual satellite mission, along with GSAT-16, DIRECTV-14, which was built by SSL (Space Systems/Loral) for operator DIRECTV to provide direct-to-home television broadcasts across the US, is also being launched.