ISRO inks deal with 4 countries for commercial satellite launches in 2021-2023

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch foreign satellites as it has signed six agreements with four countries during 2021-2023, informed Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday, December 16, in reply to a question during the Rajya Sabha. These launches will be done under six Launch service agreements that the organisation's commercial arm, New Space India Limited (NSIL), has inked with the four countries. According to the Minister, all the launches will be commercial and a total of 132 million Euros will be generated from the foreign satellites.

"ISRO through its commercial arm, New Space India Limited (NSIL), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DOS), has been launching satellites belonging to other countries on-board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), on a commercial basis," Singh informed in his written reply.

Further in his reply, the Minister also revealed that ISRO's PSLV has launched a total of 342 satellites since 1999 for 34 foreign countries. Besides, India has added $35 million and 10 million Euros in foreign exchange (forex) reserve primarily from the launches in 2019-2021, as per Singh. In addition to this, ISRO is also working on the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), which is in its final developmental stage and will probably be tested in the first quarter of 2022. The Minister informed that once completed, the SSLV will be able to carry a payload of 500 kilograms to an altitude of 500 kilometers. Earlier on Wednesday, he had revealed that, in the last five years, ISRO has successfully launched 25 launch vehicle missions and 27 satellite missions. 

ISRO's plans for the decade

Earlier during the winter session of the Parliament, it was revealed that India will launch its first manned space flight under mission 'Gaganyaan' in 2023. Prior to the first crewed flight, ISRO has also planned two unmanned flights beginning from the second half of 2022 followed by the second launch at the end of the same year. Interestingly, the 'Gaganyaan' mission will be entailed by the launch of India's own space station in the low-Earth orbit (LEO) by the end of 2030. The space station, which will be fixated in orbit 400 kilometers above the Earth, will weigh 20 tonnes and astronauts could stay there for 15-20 days. 

Image: Twitter/@isro