NEW DELHI, March 30 : Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is earning millions of Dollars and Euros through the launch of foreign satellites from Indian launching sites.
This was disclosed here today in the Lok Sabha by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh in response to a question by a member of the House. He said that NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a CPSE under Department of Space/ ISRO has earned a Foreign Exchange revenue of about 35 Million US Dollars and 10 Million Euros during the last three years 2019-2021, through launching satellites of various private and international agencies.
In his reply, Dr Jitendra Singh said, NSIL has already launched 45 international customer satellites on-board ISRO’s PSLV during the last three years and has secured 4 Dedicated Launch service contracts for foreign satellite customers.
The Minister said, with the emergence of Global Broadband communication needs, NSIL envisages launches of several of these foreign satellites on-board ISRO’s SSLV, PSLV and GSLV-MkIII. NSIL through participation in various international conferences and exhibitions is ensuring a better foot print of ISRO’s expertise in building earth observation and communications satellites, providing launch and mission support services including establishment of ground segments for foreign customers to ensure enhanced Foreign Exchange revenue earnings for the country.
Dr Jitendra Singh further informed that the Government has opened up the Space sector for private players with the announcement of space sector reforms and formation of IN-SPACe, an independent body under Department of Space which will regulate and promote private sector activities. He said, there are 48 applications received to IN-SPACe for undertaking space activities and their applications are being processed for further action. Out of these, the applications with respect to authorizing the space activities to Non-Government Private Entities (NGPEs) are 16 and sharing of technology and facilities of DoS to NGPEs are 23 and Consultancy & Promotion are 9. All the proposals of NGPEs are at different stages of approval.
In response to another question, Dr Jitendra Singh said that 7 satellites are likely to be launched by ISRO during the current year.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, ISRO has successfully launched the Earth Observation Satellite EOS-4 onboard PSLV-C52 on 14th February, 2022 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, along with INS-2TD & INSPIRESat-1 as co-passengers. The Satellites were injected into the polar sun synchronous orbit at 524.84 km altitude.
He said, EOS-4 is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging satellite for Earth Observation, operating in C-band at 5.4 GHz frequency, for applications in the domains of agriculture, disaster management, water resources and forestry.
INS-2TD is the first satellite of the 2nd generation nanosatellites intended to demonstrate indigenously developed Nano systems for in-orbit performance.
INSPIRESat-1 is a student satellite of the class 9U, jointly developed by Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, India and Laboratory of Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, the USA, to study the Ionosphere dynamics and sun’s coronal heating processes.
The Minister said, currently, the satellites are undergoing various in-orbit tests and calibrations and subsequently, the data available from the satellites will be used for achieving the mission objectives, during the designated mission life. The total time taken to realise the satellite is 63 months from date of financial sanction and the expenditure towards realisation of the satellite is nearly Rs. 490 crore.
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