The memory of transporting and assembling rockets and payloads on bicycles and bullock carts is still vivid in the minds of Indians. Today, far from it, ISRO has established a mark globally in the space sector by launching a total of 129 satellites of Indian origin. India has also led an incredible journey of launching a total of 343 foreign satellites belonging to 36 countries as of 14th February 2022, since 1975. Of this number, 39 are commercial satellites and the rest are nano-satellites.
The Indian Space Agency – ISRO has fostered the space ecosystem by opening avenues and opportunities for private players in the sector. Announcement of space sector reforms and the formation of IN-SPACe that regulates and promotes space sector activities brought in positive developments. Public Sector enterprise under the dept. of Space ‘NSIL’ has earned a Foreign Exchange revenue of about 35 Million US Dollars and 10 Million Euros during the last three years (2019-2021), by launching satellites of various private and international agencies. NSIL launched a total of 45 international customer satellites onboard ISRO’s PSLV during the last three years and has secured 4 Dedicated Launch service contracts for foreign satellite customers. Efforts are being made to use ISRO’s SSLV, PSLV, and GSLV-MkIII for such launches as well. Through launching foreign satellites, footprint of ISRO’s expertise is being ensured in building earth observation and communication satellites, providing launch and mission.
India’s space program stands out as one of the most cost-effective in the world. India has earned worldwide recognition for launching lunar probes, building satellites, ferrying foreign satellites up and has even succeeded in reaching Mars. Indian space programme has attracted global attention for its accelerated rate of development, with a critical appreciation for some of its extraordinary explorations, which include Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan, Chandrayaan-2 Mission(India’s 2nd mission to the moon), AstroSat Mission (India’s 1st observatory mission for astronomy) and Aditya-L1 Mission (India’s 1st solar observatory in space). ISRO has forged a strong relationship with many industrial enterprises, both in the public and private sector, to implement its space projects.
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), is the protagonist behind providing launch service to international customers. The first such commercial service dates back to 26th May 1999, when KITSAT-3 of the Republic of Korea was launched onboard PSLV-C2 and DLR-TUBSAT of Germany along with India’s IRS-P4 (OCEANSAT).
India even holds a record of launching 104 satellites on a single rocket (PSLV-C37). This happened on 15th February 2017, when among the 104 satellites, 101 co-passengers were international customers, namely the USA (96), the Netherlands (1), Switzerland (1), Israel (1), Kazakhstan (1), and the UAE (1). The previous record was held by Russia of launched 37 satellites in 2014. In 2017, ISRO’s PSLV launched as many as 130 foreign satellites, the most in a year, followed by 2018 (60) and 2019 (50).
With an aim to flourish further, the Indian space Agency recently signed six agreements with four countries for launching foreign satellites from 2021-to 2023. 132 Million Euros would be earned through the launching of these foreign satellites on a commercial basis. As of 10th February 2022, India has a total of 53 operational satellites in space providing various identified services to the nation. 21 of these are communication satellites, 8 are Navigation satellites, 21 are Earth Observation Satellites and 3 are Science Satellites.
SHARE
