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India to launch 3 more foreign satellites
 NEW DELHI - India, which placed an Italian satellite into orbit last month, plans to launch three more foreign satellites, a government minister said on Thursday. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has already signed agreements for putting into space three more foreign satellites, Prithviraj Chavan, a minister in the prime ministers office, told parliament.Chavan did not elaborate on the agreements or disclose when the satellites would be launched, but said ISRO was focusing on such commercial ventures. ISROs marketing arm, Antrix Corporation, is being encouraged to promote the commercial use of capacity available on Indian space systems, Chavan said in parliaments upper house. On April 23, an Indian-made rocket launched with Italys Agile astronomical satellite and put in into orbit in ISROs first commercial venture aimed at carving a slice of the global multi-billion-dollar space launch market. India wants to compete with the US, Russia, China, Ukraine and the European Space Agency in offering commercial satellite launch services, a market worth up to 2.5 billion dollars a year. However, Chavan said ISROs capabilities and developing alliances for global marketing will be considered only after meeting national needs. ISRO has designed and built launch rockets to reduce its dependence on overseas space agencies, but has only recently begun exploring commercial spin-offs.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-05-11 |
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