India has to triple its satellites in orbit in next three years: ISRO chief

Hyderabad: ISRO Chairman V Narayanan on Friday said that India has to nearly triple its number of satellites in space, from the current 55, within the next three years.

Delivering 'The GP Birla Memorial Lecture on Indian Space Programme - Accomplishments, Challenges and Future Perspectives', Narayanan said by 2040 India would be on par with any other nation in terms of space technology, application area, and infrastructure.

He also said as many as 12 launch vehicle missions are planned by the ISRO this year. The upcoming mission, NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) scheduled to be launched by India's GSLV F16 on July 30.

"Now we are working on building our own space station. We are going to have our own Chandrayan landing. Right now, 55 satellites are in orbit serving the common man in this country. And in another three years, this number has to become almost three times. The requirement is huge. The demand is so much that we have to build satellites. We are working towards that," he said.

Later, talking to reporters, he said that in 2035 India will build a full space station, and the first module will be placed in orbit in 2028.

Narayanan said, as far as space sector reforms are concerned, a lot of work is going on and earlier ISRO’s model of work used to be service-oriented, but now it wants to grab business opportunities.