Bangalore, May 21 (IANS) India's heavy geo-stationary satellite GSAT-8 lifted off successfully onboard the Ariane-V rocket at 0211 IST Saturday from Kourou in French Guiana, an official from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

 
 The indigenously built 3.1-tonne (3,100 kg) GSAT-8 has 24 high powered Ku-band transponders for direct-to-home (DTH) services by state-run and private broadcasters.
 
 Ariane-V of Arianespace belongs to the European Space Agency consortium.
 
 Thirty minutes after the launch, Ariane will deploy the heavy satellite in a elliptical geo-synchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and the space agency's master control facility (MCF) at Hasan in Karnataka, about 180 km from Bangalore, will take over its command and control.
 
 The satellite will be gradually put in the 36,000 km geosynchronous orbit over the subsequent days and its antenna and solar panels will be deployed.
 
 The MCF will also test and monitor the health parameters of the payloads by June 1. It will be available for DTH services from next month.
 
 Along with GSAT-8, the space agency has sent the global position system (GPS) aided geo augmented navigation (Gagan) to improve the accuracy of the US' GPS.