Indian Space Programme Set To Enter Global Market

The Indian space programme is now poised to enter the competitive international space market after crossing yet another milestone by putting into orbit its latest communications satellite. For India, which is in an exclusive league of six nations that can build satellites, the launch of INSAT-2D was another step towa rds making its space programme fully self-supporting to fulfill the country's needs for satellite application missions.

Today we are among the first six in the world as the INSAT and the IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) are at the cutting edge of technology in terms of satellites. In terms of the type of money we are spending and the type of benefits it is accruing to the country, we have received appreciation from both the developed and developing countries, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Kasturirangan told India Abroad News Service.

 

Indian Space Research Organisation recently signed a $100-million agreement with INTELSAT, a constortium which operates over 20 satellites across the globe, to lease transponder facilities on its next satellite, the INSAT-2E.

We have introduced nine to 11 transponders into the INSAT-2E which is slated for launch next year and will be leased to INTELSAT for a period of over 10 years, Kasturirangan said. INTELSAT is one of the most demanding customers in the area of communications satellite and the agreement with us shows that we are able to satisfy a very demanding customer, he added.

Yet another international commercial tie-up ISRO has entered into is with the American EOSAT. The tie-up involves a $1 billion dollar contract to market IRS-IC data globally through EOSAT.

The IRS-IC is very much in demand by the global remote sensing community and the American groundstation at Normal in Oklahoma is already receiving data from IRS together with a groundstation in Germany. Plans are afoot so that Japan, Thailand, South Africa and Australia will also join in receiving IRS data. We are at discussion stage and we hope that by the year end at least seven to ten countries will come into the loop of IRS-IC, the ISRO chairman said.

We are also planning to launch one of the operational IRS satellites with our own PSLV launcher in the second half of this year if things go according to plans, Kasturirangan said. The PSLV is capable of putting 1,000 kg to 1,200 kg class remote sensing satellites into orbit. In 1994 the second developmental flight, PSLV-D2, had successfully placed in orbit the IRS-P2.

India's rocket programme started in 1980 with the SLV-3 (Satellite Launch Vehicle-3) placing a 40 kg satellite into the near-earth orbit during its first successful flight in July that year.

The second phase of the rocket programme involved the ASLV in the early 1990s when it injected the SROSS-C into a near-earth orbit. At present ISRO scientists are working on the GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) which is capable of launching 2,500 kg class of communication satellite with the help of a cryogenic engine.

Our PSLV programme has successfully launched the operational class of IRS satellites. We are presently working on the GSLV and hoping to do a test flight of GSLV in the near future, Kasturirangan said.

The GSLV, which is a highly advanced rocket system, required a cryogenic engine for its top stage which it was to get from Russia. But the multi-million dollar programme suffered a major setback when the US put pressure on Russia not to supply the cryogenic to India as it was opposed, in principle, to India's launch vehicle programme.

ISRO scientists decided to tide over this sanction by working overtime on indigenously building the cryogenic engine. Right now we have completed the design of the cryogenic engine and we have gone through some progress by testing the one-tonne subscale engine and we should be able to attempt certain levels of preliminary tests by the early part of next year, the ISRO Chairman said.

The space establishment has already started work on the G-SAT series of satellites to be launched by the developmental flights of the GSLV, which in turn will allow India to take up digital audio-visual broadcasting.

Our present programme is application driven in the context of national development and fears that our launch vehicle programme is linked to the missile programme is not true, Kasturirangan said. The US Commerce Department recently imposed export restrictions on the public sector electronics giant Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for helping ISRO build India's missile programme.

ISRO scientists are determined not to allow US sanctions to pull the space programme down. In fact the organisation has been working at a furious pace in recent months. 1995-96 was a watershed year with three launches, he said.