Ready to launch

New Delhi, April 11: Anticipating an increase in orders for satellites, the Indian Space Research Organisation has invited leading industries to begin production of satellites based on designs provided by Isro.

Isro will provide companies “hand-holding” and “on-the-job training” in building satellites at its own facilities as well as offer “over-the-shoulder” supervision at the industry sites, senior officials said.

“This will allow Isro to focus on research and development, while industries take over activities related to routine satellite production,” Isro chairman G. Madhavan Nair said.

“This is an appropriate time for such an initiative,” he told The Telegraph.

Isro expects a demand for at least eight small- and medium-sized communications or earth-observation satellites over the next four to five years for the domestic and foreign markets. Under the new initiative, Isro has offered joint production of a first satellite with industrial partners.

As industries gain experience, Isro will confine itself to reviewing the reliability and quality aspects of the industry-built satellites.

Getting industries involved in satellite production would leave Isro’s scientists free to concentrate on the next generation of satellites with advanced features, Nair said.

The space research organisation wants to design satellites for communications and ground and ocean observations.

Isro has long nurtured what officials call a “symbiotic” relationship with industries. More than 500 small, medium and large industries across India provide components, chemicals and the myriad materials and hardware systems that go into Isro’s satellites and launch vehicles. Several companies are already supplying satellite hardware such as the solar panels, batteries, power systems and heat pipes among other components.

“We think some industries can take up the next level of satellite-building activity,” Nair said. Isro has invited proposals from industries to take up building satellite platforms, including satellite assembly, integration and testing based on Isro designs.

Isro wants industries to fabricate, assemble and test satellite sub-systems and integrate them to create a complete satellite platform that includes the propulsion system and on-board control and power systems, sensors and tracking and command systems.

Isro will provide mission- specific designs of satellites to industries and evaluate their reliability and quality.

While Antrix Corporation, the entity created in the early 1990s to market India’s space services and technology, has launched several foreign-made satellites, it also hopes to build satellites for foreign clients in the years to come.