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PSLV's success and beyond

After an uneventful flight on Monday, India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) deposited the Italian astronomy satellite Agile safely in orbit 550 km above the earth. Although it was the rocket's tenth consecutive successful launch, it was the first time the Indian Space Research Organisation executed a commercial launch contract with the customer paying the full international rates. Before this, the PSLV launched six small foreign satellites, but those satellites had gone piggyback, paying nominal fees, on flights with an Indian spacecraft as the primary payload. Since its first successful flight in 1994, the PSLV has matured to become the Indian launch vehicle programme's workhorse — which has taken into space eight Indian remote sensing satellites, a meteorological satellite, an amateur radio satellite, and the country's first recoverable space capsule. The rocket's capabilities have been steadily upgraded over the years. Today the launcher is able to accommodate payloads one-and-a-half times heavier than what it was originally designed to carry. In a year's time, an enhanced version of the PSLV will be used to send the country's first space probe, Chandrayaan-1, on its way to the moon.

The PSLV's reliability and cost-effectiveness were crucial factors in ISRO winning its first commercial launch contract. The Indian space agency has a considerable way to go before it can become a major player in the global launch market. The PSLV and even the current generation of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) have relatively modest launch capabilities in international terms. Many of the foreign satellites they can carry are likely to be government-sponsored ones, which are often preferred to domestic launches. For the rest, there is bound to be intense competition from other launch providers: Russia can offer cheap launches on a range of rockets, including converted ballistic missiles. Moreover, the big moneymaking opportunities lie in launching heavy communication satellites. That is a market segment ISRO can realistically hope to enter only after the more powerful GSLV Mark-III becomes operational in a few years' time. Then there is the vexing issue of U.S. export control laws that prescribe onerous licensing requirements when a U.S. satellite or indeed any satellite with components made in the U.S. is to be launched from a non-NATO country. The uncertainties introduced by these requirements increase ISRO's difficulties in marketing its rockets. The Indian space agency must therefore seek to match its technical savvy with renewed efforts to tackle these geopolitical realities.

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