Zee Media Bureau
Bangalore: Strengthening its advancement towards space research, India is all set to launch four foreign satellites in 2014-15 in the Earth`s lower orbit, using its workhorse polar rocket, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sources.
“Our commercial arm Antrix Corporation has signed agreements with a British firm Jan 29 and a Singapore agency Wednesday to launch their spacecraft onboard our polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV),” an official of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was quoted as saying to IANS.
The customers are DMC International Imaging, a subsidiary of the Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., for launching its three 350-kg disaster monitoring satellites and ST Electronics (Satcom and Sensor Systems) Pte. Ltd., Singapore, for launch of its 400-kg TeLEOS-1 earth observation satellite.
“The launches will take place between 2014-15 when we receive the spacecraft from the customers. Details of weight of satellites, instruments to be taken onboard and their location in the polar (north-south) orbit will be worked out in coming months,” the official said.
The satellites will be launched from the Indian spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh off the Bay of Bengal.
ISRO is working towards launching SPOT-7, a French satellite onboard the PSLV with four micro-satellites in March/April.
“We are on track to launch Spot-7 in the next two months with four smaller satellites,” added the official.
On September 8 2012, an Indian rocket placed French SPOT-6 Earth observation satellite.
The SPOT (Satellite Pour l`Observation de la Terre) is a constellation with a high-resolution optical imaging earth observation satellite system operated by the French space agency CNES (Centre National D`etudes Spatiales) at Toulouse since 1986 was developed in association with the SSTC (Belgian scientific, technical and cultural services) and the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB).
Earlier, ISRO had bagged a contract to launch an 800-kg German satellite EnMAP (Environmental Mapping and Analysis Programme) and a set of Canadian satellites this calendar year.
ISRO has launched 65 satellites/spacecraft (30 Indian and 35 Foreign Satellites) into a variety of orbits till date. In November 2013, the space agency launched its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), which is currently on-route to Mars.
With Agency Inputs
