India’s commercial space missions are proving to be cash-cows. They have raked in about $100 million by launching 45 satellites of other countries till date and revenue from its commercial space missions is poised to grow with another 28
foreign satellites planned to be put into orbit between 2015 and 2017.
This information was given by Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh in a written reply in the lok Sabha on Wednesday while providing details of revenue earned by Antrix — the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) — from launch of foreign satellites.
Singh said Antrix has signed agreements for
launching 28 satellites from six countries viz., Algeria (3), Canada (4), Germany (4), Indonesia (2), Singapore (6) and USA (9) during
2015-2017.
“Further, discussions with foreign agencies/companies are ongoing for providing launch services to their satellites on-board ISRO’s Polar Satellite launch Vehicle (PSlV) and Geo-synchronous Satellite launch Vehicle (GSlV),” he added.
Till now, 45 satellites from 19 countries have been launched by the ISRO and the income generated through this amounts to around US$17 million and 78.5 million Euros (US$85 million), he said.
Singh also informed that the Government has sanctioned 15 smaller PSlV launchers which would be built during 2017-2020.
These include Ten
Polar Satellite launch Vehicles (PSlV), Two Geosynchronous Satellite launch Vehicles (GSlV) and one developmental flight of GSlV Mk III. Indigenous GSlV will launch 2 ton class of communication satellites in space, said Singh in a response to another question.
He also elaborated on the initiation of chalking out a roadmap for the country’s space programmes in addressing short-term and long-term areas.
On other issues, Singh said the expenditure on the ground system of the proposed SAARC satellite project will be borne by the regional bloc countries while India will bear the expenses on its building and launching.
“While the cost
towards building and launching a satellite will be met by the government of India, the cost towards ground system is expected to be sourced by respective SAARC countries,” Singh said in his reply.
“The objective of this project is to develop a satellite for the SAARC region that enables a full range of services to all our neighbours in the areas of telecommunications and broadcasting applications like television, DTH, tele-education and disaster management,” he added.