Satellite launch: ISRO to earn half the cost from foreign
parties
SRO will recover half of the total cost incurred for next
week's launch of 104 satellites from the foreign capsules mounted on its
workhorse rocket PSLV-C37.Of the104 satellites to be launched on February 15,
only three are Indian.PSLV-C37/Cartosat-2 Series Satellite Mission is scheduled
to be launched on February 15, 2017 at 9.28 hours IST from SDSC SHAR Satish
Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.”
"We want to make optimum use of our capacity. We are
launching our three satellites. One is of 730 kgs while other two are 19 kgs
each. We had additional space of 600 kgs. So we decided to accommodate 101 satellites,"
ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar said. "Roughly half of our cost will be
covered by the foreign satellites we are launching," he said, without
revealing the exact amount ISRO will earn from foreign customers.
The space agency has earned more than $100 millions by
launching foreign satellites. It also has achieved mastery on launching smaller
satellites.
ISRO will launch a record 104 satellites through its
workhorse rocket PSLV-C37 on February 15 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in
Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
These 101 satellites are nano-satellites and belong to
foreign nations, including the US and Germany.
The Indian satellites are from the Cartosat series.
Last year, ISRO launched record 20 satellites at one go. The
highest number of satellites launched in a single mission is 37, a record that
Russia set in 2014. The US space agency NASA launched 29.
Kumar said ISRO is at present doing tests on its lander for
Chandrayaan 2 at its facility in Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu and Challakere in
Karnataka.
"It is an indigenous development and tests are on. It's
a control descend. So it has engines that allow a control descend," Kumar
said.
Chandryaan 2mission seeks to make a landing on the moon.
The ISRO said that all SAARC countries, except Pakistan,
have given their consent for the South Asian satellites project envisioned by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "India's gift to its neighbours".
Kumar said that the manned mission project is "not a top
priority" for the ISRO, as he emphasised on enhancing space
infrastructure.
