PlanetiQ in talks with Antrix for satellite launch

Reports say Antrix could launch two of PlanetiQ's satellites during third quarter of 2016

Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), is in talks with PlanetiQ, a commercial weather company to launch the latter's satellite. 

According to reports, US-based PlanetiQ is planning to launch a constellation of GPS Radio Occultation (GPS-RO), for which it would look at utilising India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) next year.

A senior official from Antrix Corporation said that PlanetiQ is one among the several companies it is in talks with for potential business contracts.

Reports suggest that the current discussions are around launching the first two satellites of the constellation during the third quarter of 2016.

According to a recent announcement by PlanetiQ, the company is working on a microsatellite constellation, with an initial set of 12 satellites to be launched in 2016 and 2017, which will deliver over eight million observations per day of temperature, pressure and water vapor, or more than 10 times the amount of data available from GPS-RO sensors currently on orbit.

"GPS-RO has shown the highest impact per observation on forecast accuracy among the satellite data sources ingested into computer weather models, and is particularly effective at improving predictions of high-impact weather such as hurricanes, severe weather outbreaks and winter storms. However, the amount of GPS-RO data available to date has been sparse," said the company.

Antrix on July 10 successfully launched five British satellites in one of the heaviest commerical launches ever by the company. 

With the latest launch, the company has launched 45 commercial satellites from 1999. It currently has 28 service contracts in its kitty, which it will complete in the next two-three years.