The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday said it has plans to put together a consortium of public and private sector companies, for end-to-end building of its trusted work-horse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

As ISRO is trying to increase the number of launches, a consortium approach would be more appropriate for PSLV, ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar told media persons on the sidelines of a conference of project managers here.

Having PSLV build outside the system will help the space agency to increase the frequency of launches, he said.

“We will get the PSLV built by the consortium and will launch it from the existing Sri Harikota launch facility. The consortium should adhere to all quality standards of ISRO,” a senior ISRO official told BusinessLine from Bengaluru.

“Currently when we will build the PSLV, 60-70 per cent assistance comes from the industry. But we integrate it at ISRO. Now, the idea is to get the industry take care of the entire building of the launch vehicle,” he said. According to the ISRO official, the consortium is expected to be building the launch vehicle by 2020.

Launch frequency

Many public and private firms such as Walchandnagar Industries, Larson & Toubro, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which are already contributing to the Indian space programme are expected to be in the consortium.

“The consortium has not been formed yet, but some initial discussions have been taken place already,” said GK Pillai, Managing Director and CEO of Walchandnagar Industries.

According to Kumar, ISRO was also seeking to increase its annual launches to 24, apart from boosting its existing constellation of 42 satellites.

“We are trying to increase the frequency of launches so that we can put sufficient infrastructure in place to meet our communication, remote sensing, earth observation and navigation requirements,” he said.

He said ISRO was also gearing up for its next Moon mission — Chandrayaan 2, which is expected early next year.

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