The Hindu Business Line : ISRO bags Italian launch contract

Although ISRO has provided commercial launches for four small 100-kg satellites since May 1999, the upcoming contract for the 600-kg `Agile' satellite puts ISRO a step ahead in the small launch services market hogged by Europe and the US.

ISRO will fly it on its workhorse rocket, the PSLV, from the Sriharikota launchpad, the ISRO Chairman, Mr Madhavan Nair, told newspersons at an Environment Day event on Saturday.

The launch into a 600-km low earth orbit would be using only half the capacity of the 1.3-tonne PSLV rocket and hence ISRO would make some modification and fly it without the six strap-on boosters, a spokesman said.

In the 1.5-billion global market, the Indian launch service is competitively priced and the real commercial clincher, according to him, would be when the national space agency won a contract for a full-capacity (1.3-tonne class) satellite.

ISRO's commercial launches so far include Korean Kitsat-3 and German DLR-TUBSAT in May 1999 and German BIRD and Belgian Proba satellites in 2001. A small Singapore satellite has been contracted for launch later this year. The agency also has a joint marketing agreement with the lead launch provider, Arianespace or Europe, for the PSLV but that is yet to materialise. The next domestic version, the GSLV with a capability to lift up to two-tonne satellites, has also reached the marketplace after two successive demonstrations.

Each launch of its communication satellites, the Insats, on such rockets typically costs ISRO around Rs 400 crore (at the rate of Rs 15 crore-Rs 20 crore a kg of satellite).