Indian space firm to launch 4 foreign satellites

Bengaluru: State-run NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), the commercial arm of the space department, bagged orders to launch four foreign satellites for earth observation from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, a top official said on Friday.

"We have signed contracts with four foreign customers to launch four satellites in the earth's lower orbit using the PSLV and SSLV rockets of the Indian space agency ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) from its spaceport at Sriharikota," NSIL Chairman G. Narayanan told reporters here.

The top official, however, did not disclose names of the customers or their location due to non-disclosure agreements with them.

"Of the four satellites, three will be launched using ISRO's polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) and one with its small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV). The spacecraft will be used for earth observation applications," said Narayanan, marking the company's two years of completion.

The state-run NSIL was in the news recently for launching Brazil's earth observation satellite Amazonia-1 on February 28 from the spaceport on board ISRO's PSLV-C51 rocket along with 18 other satellites.

Amazonia-1 is the optical earth observation satellite of National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Brazil.

In addition to these commercial launches, NSIL will launch two communication satellites for Indian customers offering direct-to-home (DTH) services and telecom operators offering broadband services using Ku-band transponders.

"The two communication satellites, to be launched by ISRO from its spaceport, will be owned and operated by us (NSIL) for customers on commercial terms for revenue-generating services," said Narayanan but declined to name the customers claiming confidentiality.