<p>"Today, we have eight (foreign) satellites to be launched. This will be launched over the next two-three years", Managing Director of Antrix Corporation, marketing arm of Bangalore headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), K R Sridhara Murthi said.<br />These are a mix of small and bigger satellites, he said but declined to elaborate, noting that the space agency is yet to formally ink some of these contracts.<br /><br />But one foreign satellite that is being readied for launch is a 150-kg one from Algeria, which is slated to be launched by home-grown Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle as a piggyback payload likely in April next year.<br />Sridhara Murthi said ISRO is looking for opportunities to acquire foreign satellites.<br /><br />In fact, it, along with its global partners, recently unsuccessfully bid to acquire a satellite, which was put up for auctioning by a company facing bankruptcy, in the United States.<br /><br />Intelsat won the bid with a price of USD 210 million.ISRO was ready to shell out USD 100 million for part of the capacity that it intended to use, Sridhara Murthi said.<br />ISRO's bold move is a sign of its growing confidence, he said.<br />ISRO has also started integrating Hylas spacecraft, a contract it jointly bagged with EADS-Astrium, and it would be delivered to the customer, UK-based Avanti Screenmedia, in June.<br /><br />Under the contract, EADS-Astrium is the prime contractor in charge of overall programme management and would build the communications payload, while Antrix/ISRO would build the satellite with a lift-off mass of around 2.5 tonnes and power of 3.2 KW.<br />"This year we are producing a very sophisticated high definition television satellite (Hylas) -- probably for the first time in the world", he said.<br />ISRO is looking to further scale up the participation of industries in space projects and even mulling to outsource some research and development tasks to them.<br />"Nearly 400 industries take part in space programme today", he said, noting for example that industries now undertake 70 per cent of work on developing launch vehicles (rockets). <br /><br />"So, when (Indian) rocket is a success, it's not merely ISRO which has to take credit, it is also a large number of industries which have to take credit", Sridhara Murthi said.<br />In addition, as of March this year, ISRO had transferred 289 technologies to modern industries for commercialisation and provided 270 technical consultancies in different disciplines of space technology.<br />ISRO endeavours to develop technologies with industries. "In the years to come, even for R & D tasks, ISRO will depend more and more on industries".<br />Sridhara Murthi also spoke about the profitability of space business. Antix today has an annual revenue of over Rs 1,000 crore.<br />"Each satellite can pay for itself including the cost of launching. If you take a communication satellite, probably we spend about Rs 300 crore to launch one satellite. But, typically, this can pay back Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,000 crore over a period of its life".<br />"If we look at the value chain of space activities, if we invest one rupee in space, there is ten rupee business on ground", he said.</p>
<p>"Today, we have eight (foreign) satellites to be launched. This will be launched over the next two-three years", Managing Director of Antrix Corporation, marketing arm of Bangalore headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), K R Sridhara Murthi said.<br />These are a mix of small and bigger satellites, he said but declined to elaborate, noting that the space agency is yet to formally ink some of these contracts.<br /><br />But one foreign satellite that is being readied for launch is a 150-kg one from Algeria, which is slated to be launched by home-grown Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle as a piggyback payload likely in April next year.<br />Sridhara Murthi said ISRO is looking for opportunities to acquire foreign satellites.<br /><br />In fact, it, along with its global partners, recently unsuccessfully bid to acquire a satellite, which was put up for auctioning by a company facing bankruptcy, in the United States.<br /><br />Intelsat won the bid with a price of USD 210 million.ISRO was ready to shell out USD 100 million for part of the capacity that it intended to use, Sridhara Murthi said.<br />ISRO's bold move is a sign of its growing confidence, he said.<br />ISRO has also started integrating Hylas spacecraft, a contract it jointly bagged with EADS-Astrium, and it would be delivered to the customer, UK-based Avanti Screenmedia, in June.<br /><br />Under the contract, EADS-Astrium is the prime contractor in charge of overall programme management and would build the communications payload, while Antrix/ISRO would build the satellite with a lift-off mass of around 2.5 tonnes and power of 3.2 KW.<br />"This year we are producing a very sophisticated high definition television satellite (Hylas) -- probably for the first time in the world", he said.<br />ISRO is looking to further scale up the participation of industries in space projects and even mulling to outsource some research and development tasks to them.<br />"Nearly 400 industries take part in space programme today", he said, noting for example that industries now undertake 70 per cent of work on developing launch vehicles (rockets). <br /><br />"So, when (Indian) rocket is a success, it's not merely ISRO which has to take credit, it is also a large number of industries which have to take credit", Sridhara Murthi said.<br />In addition, as of March this year, ISRO had transferred 289 technologies to modern industries for commercialisation and provided 270 technical consultancies in different disciplines of space technology.<br />ISRO endeavours to develop technologies with industries. "In the years to come, even for R & D tasks, ISRO will depend more and more on industries".<br />Sridhara Murthi also spoke about the profitability of space business. Antix today has an annual revenue of over Rs 1,000 crore.<br />"Each satellite can pay for itself including the cost of launching. If you take a communication satellite, probably we spend about Rs 300 crore to launch one satellite. But, typically, this can pay back Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,000 crore over a period of its life".<br />"If we look at the value chain of space activities, if we invest one rupee in space, there is ten rupee business on ground", he said.</p>