India’s Future space projects

ISRO intends to launch following projects for space exploration in the next three years.

1.A multi-wavelength astronomy satellite ‘ASTROSAT’ aimed at studying the celestial sources over a wide spectral region covering Visible, Ultraviolet, Soft X-rays and Hard X-ray bands.

2. Chandrayaan-2 mission comprising of an Indian Orbiter, Lander and Rover. The Orbiter with scientific payloads will orbit around the moon. The scientific payloads onboard the Orbiter, Lander and Rover are expected to perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface.

3. A scientific mission ‘Aditya’ for solar studies to understand the physical processes that heat the solar corona.

At present, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) does not have any plan for developing an Indian Space Telescope similar to Hubble Space Telescope.

Commercial Achievements

The Government has taken a number of steps to popularise ISRO`s prowess in the field of space launches.

Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), from 1999 onwards - till date, has successfully launched 40 satellites of foreign customers from 19 countries, using ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Further, contracts have been finalised to launch 16 satellites from six countries in the coming years.

The ISRO has undertaken space launch services of developing countries in Asia and Africa. The ISRO, through its commercial arm Antrix, has already launched one satellite for developing countries in Asia namely, Indonesia and contract has been finalized for launching two more satellites of Indonesia. One satellite has also been launched for developing countries in Africa namely, Algeria.

The space projects undertaken by Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO, till date, include: (i) establishment of ground stations for reception of data from Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites along with processing facilities at 20 locations outside India; (ii) building two contemporary communication satellites for European customers, and one communication satellite for Indian strategic user; (iii) providing tracking support for over 70 spacecraft missions of foreign customers; (iv) provisioning of satellite transponder capacity from Indian communication satellites for telecommunication, TV broadcasting, Direct-To-Home (DTH) services and VSAT applications; (v) launching of 40 foreign satellites on-board ISRO’s PSLV; (vi) establishment of ground terminals for tele-education, tele-medicine, disaster mitigation and Village Resource Centres; and (vii) consultancy services to domestic and foreign clients.