India is planning a share in the global satellite launch market. To this end, the parliament was informed that the government has secured four dedicated launch service contracts with foreign customers.
As per Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in PMO, with the emergence of global broadband communication needs, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) envisages launches of several of these foreign satellites onboard ISRO’s SSLV, PSLV and GSLV-MkIII. The SSLV is India’s newest launch vehicle to put smaller satellites in low earth orbit. Also, its first developmental flight is expected in May 2022.
Earlier in March 2022, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had successfully carried out the ground testing of the newly developed solid booster stage (SS1) for SSLV.
Speaking about the revenue Singh said that NSIL, a central public sector enterprise under Department of Space, has earned a foreign exchange revenue of $35 million and €10 million through launching satellites of various private and international agencies during 2019-21.
In addition, the parliament was also informed that NSIL has already launched 45 international customer satellites on-board ISRO’s PSLV during the last three years and has secured four dedicated launch service contracts for foreign satellite customers.
Separately, as a part of the reform, Singh said that the government has opened up the space sector for private participation to carry out end-to-end activities. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) shall act as the agency to promote, handhold and authorise private sector activities in the sector, besides enabling sharing of technical facilities and expertise from ISRO.
