Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, July 22: India has begun earning sizeable income from Space and has so far already earned 7 million USD and 78.5 million EUR through its commercial arrangement for launching of foreign satellites from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launch vehicle.
Disclosing this in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh stated that even as India has emerged as a front ranking nation with regard to its scientific capability in the field of Space technology, it has also found a significant means of income through space marketing and economy. Till date, 45 satellites from 19 countries have been successfully launched using ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) under the commercial arrangement, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh further went on to state that through Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), which is the commercial arm of Department of Space, Government has signed agreement for launching 28 more satellites from six countries including USA, Germany, Canada, Singapore, Indonesia and Algeria. The launches of these foreign satellites are envisaged during 2015 to 2017, he informed and added that further discussions with foreign agencies and companies are also going on for providing launch services.
In reply to another question related to Space, Dr Jitendra Singh stated, so far the Department of Space has launched 72 satellites out of which 45 were launched from the “Satish Dhawan Space Centre” at Sriharikota using indigenous launch vehicles while 27 were launched using foreign launchers. In addition, he referred to the contribution made by the students of various Indian universities who had developed four micro and nano satellites which were also successfully launched by ISRO.
In addition to launching foreign satellites, according to Dr Jitendra Singh, another source of income generated by the Department of Space is by marketing the images received from the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Satellites to other countries and global customers.
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