The Hindu : Front Page : ISRO plans five launches a year from Sriharikota, says Madhavan Nair

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Monday, Sep 03, 2007
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ISRO plans five launches a year from Sriharikota, says Madhavan Nair

T.S. Subramanian

We want to capture five to 10 per cent of the launch market: Chairman

— PHOTO: S.R. RAGHUNATHAN

jubilant team: (From left) B.N. Suresh, Director, VSSC; G. Ravindranath, Mission Director, GSLV; G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO; and Prahlada Rao, Satellite Director, INSAT 4CR, at a press conference after the GSLV-F04 launch at Sriharikota on Sunday.

SRIHARIKOTA: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing for five launches a year from its spaceport here, according to its Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair.

Two more PSLV launches

There would be two more launches of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) this year, but the details of what satellite they would put in orbit were yet to be worked out, he said.

There would be another GSLV launch next year.

Big plans

Answering questions at a press conference here about ISRO’s plans to capture the international satellite-launch market, Mr. Nair said, “We want to capture five to 10 per cent of the market” (mid-range satellite segment of 2,000 kg and plus) in the next five years.

Enquiries received

K.R. Sridhara Murthi, Executive Director, Antrix Corporation Limited, said he had received many inquiries for launching satellites, particularly by the under-development GSLV-Mark III.

The vehicle can put into orbit satellites weighing more than 3.5 tonnes. Antrix Corporation is the marketing agency of the Department of Space.

Trying time

G. Ravindranath, Mission Director, who was modestly joyous over the mission’s success, said words failed him at the moment. The ISRO team had a trying time after the failure of the GSLV in July 2006, but they proved that they could bounce back.

N. Jayachandran Nair, Vehicle Director, and Prahlada Rao, Satellite Director, spoke about the efforts that went into the mission. While it normally took about 24 months to build an INSAT, INSAT-4CR was built in less than 12 months after the GSLV’s failure last year.

K.N. Shankara, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, which built the satellite, said that the solar array of INSAT-4CR had been deployed.

B.N. Suresh, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, which built the GSLV-F04, said the launch reinforced ISRO’s confidence in the mastery of launch vehicle technology.

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