Confident ISRO targets global launch market

BY : sify

Its confidence further boosted after a successful satellite launch on Sunday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said is was targeting 5-10 per cent of the global satellite launch market.

"We can offer very competitive satellite launch rates, nearly 40 per cent cheaper than the prevailing rates. In the small satellite launch market our rates are lower by 20 per cent," ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said.

Also read: INSAT-4CR launched successfully | Chronology of India's satellite launches | INSAT launches

He was speaking to the media here after the launch of the communication satellite INSAT-4CR by the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle GSLV F04.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated Nair and his team over the phone soon after the launch. "The Prime Minister also expressed his confidence in ISRO and the other related space industries," Nair said.

According to K R Sridharamurthi, executive director of ISRO's marketing arm Antrix Corporation, the agency was getting more enquiries about the GSLV Mark III model that can carry heavy satellites. The launch vehicle is under development at ISRO.

Nair termed the INSAT-4CR launch as dramatic.

Bad weather in the days leading up to the launch, a faulty vent value in the cryogenic stage that put on hold the flight by two hours and the absence of signals for a few seconds after the rocket's launch gave ISRO scientists tense moments over the Rs 300-crore mission's success.

"We localised the faulty vent value in the cryogenic stage corrected it fast. The rocket went up at 6.20 pm (IST)," said Nair.

Talking about the progress of ISRO's moon mission, Nair said construction work for the Chandrayaan satellite centre and the ground station had started.

He added ISRO was planning two more launches using the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) in the near future.

ISRO was progressing well in its target of four rocket launches a year, he said.