The Hindu Business Line : ISRO's first full commercial launch today

`Among new launch deals is NLS-4, a cluster of six tiny (nano) satellites of 1-5 kg, in a mission coordinated by the Toronto University. NLS-4 may be flown towards 2007-end.'

Bangalore April 22 On Monday the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be making its first full-fledged commercial launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

Its workhorse PSLV (polar satellite launch vehicle) is slated to carry and put into orbit Agile, a 352-kg Italian astronomical satellite.

Agile will be the first foreign satellite to ride exclusively on the PSLV - reportedly for a consideration of $11 million (around Rs 49 crore). The national space agency has put six small foreign experimental satellites into orbit since 1999 using the PSLV for a smaller fee. These rode `piggyback' with a main ISRO satellite.

It will be the 11th outing for the PSLV, which since 1994 has been flying the ISRO's remote sensing satellites of up to 1.5 tonnes into orbits 900 km from the Earth. The PSLV will also be the launcher for next year's Rs 350-crore, 600-kg lunar orbiter mission.

MORE DEALS

Mr K.R. Sridhara Murthi, Executive Director of ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation, had earlier told Business Line that among new launch deals is NLS-4, a cluster of six tiny (nano) satellites of 1-5 kg, in a mission coordinated by the Toronto University. NLS-4 may be flown towards 2007-end. Singapore University has contracted Antrix to fly its XSAT on the PSLV.

The ISRO began its commercial foray into the launch service market with the 100-kg KITSAT-3 (South Korea) and 50-kg DLR-TUBSAT (Germany) in May 1999. In October 2001 came 100 - kg class BIRD (Germany) and PROBA of Belgium. In January this year, PSLV-C7 took the 56-kg Lapan-Tubsat (Indonesia) and the 6-kg Pehuensat-1 of Argentina as piggybacks along with Cartosat-2.

NICHE SEGMENT

Antrix says it is aiming at the emerging market of small scientific satellites of up to 600 kg - a class which the European and the US launch majors such as Arianespace, Lockheed Martin and Boeing have long moved out of.

ISRO officials say its price will also be attractive: The big guns charge $10,000-12,000 per kg to be lifted depending on the satellite's weight and orbit.

The ISRO believes that its real launch foray will be when it does a commercial launch on the GSLV. The geostationary satellite launch vehicle can carry 2-tonne Insat-class load to 36,000-km heights.

"Serious and real launch opportunities will open up when we get the GSLV-Mk3 ready," Mr Murthi had said. Mk-3 is meant to carry 4 tonnes and is slated for a trial in 2008.

Currently, the Rs 500-crore Antrix's main revenue driver will be the lease of transponders on the Insat communications satellites.

REJIGGED PSLV-C8

The launch set for 3.30 p.m., will put Agile into a 550-km circular orbit. The launcher is lighter than earlier versions, without the six first-stage solid propellant strap-on motors, which has lowered its cost from Rs 80 crore to Rs 65 crore. It will use 400 kg of less propellant in the fourth stage.

On the PSLV-C8, the ISRO is testing the 185-kg advanced avionics module, to monitor advanced launch vehicle avionics systems such as mission computers, navigation and telemetry systems.

More Stories on : Science & Technology | Science & Technology

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page