USSR and USA have been providing launching facilities for Indian satellites. Aryabhatta, Bhaskara-I, Bhaskara-II and two Indian Remote Sensing Satellites, IRS-1A and IRS-1B have been launched from USSR. Agreement already exists with USSR for launching of Indian Remote Sensing Satellites 1C (IRS-1C). Indian National Satellite - 1A (INSAT - 1A), Indian National Satellite - 1B (INSAT - 1B) and Indian National Satellite - 1D (INSAT-1D) have been launched from USA.Satellite manufactured abroad to Indian design and launched from abroad are: INSAT-1 Series (four satellites) - USA.Satellites fabricated in India and launched through foreign launchers are :

With the space industry emerging as the next economic frontier to be explored, India’s scientist aim to propel the South Asian country into stratospheric heights of profitability in a market dominated by the US, Russia, Europe and China. India has outstanding capability in the construction and operation of satellites and satellite launch vehicles.ISRO has entered into an agreement with the Earth Observation Satellite (EOSAT) of the United States, which agreed to exclusive global commercial distribution of IRS series satellite data.

Antrix Corporation

Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of Department of Space (DOS) is incorporated in September 1992 for the promotion and commercial exploration of products and services from the Indian Space Programme.The company has successfully executed several export orders received from major spacecraft/satellite manufacturers for spacecraft/satellite systems, assemblies and components. The main activities include

• Global marketing of Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Satellite Data Products.
• Establishment of International Ground Stations (IGS) and International Reseller Network to receive, process and market IRS data products Globally and also interfaced with COqwTS developers for integrating IRS image processing
• Successful Commercial Satellite Launches of Kitsat (Korea), Tubsat (DLR - Germany), BIRD (DLR - Germany), PROBA (Verhaert, Belgium) aboard the ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
• Antrix has also provided Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TTC) support services to International Space Agencies.
• A list of customers availing services are World Space PANAMSAT, GE Americom, AFRISTAT etc., - LEOP support, IOT, TTC.
• Telemedicine Network in different parts of India
• Antrix Corporation signed an agreement in 1998 with Arian space for the joint marketing of ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Arianspace’s Ariane-5 .Under this agreement, ISRO by its PSLV-C2 launch on May 26, 1999, entered into the launch business.
• Nine of the seventeen transponders of INSAT-2E have been leased to the international inter-government space consortium, INTELSAT, for $10 million a year.
• Latest launch of PSLV-C10 in 2008, launched TECSAR satellite under a commercial contract with Antrix Corporation (January 21, 2008) is a sign of India emerging as a major player in the multibillion-dollar space market.
• Antrix has an annual sales turnover of US$68 million, mostly marketing transponder capacity for satellite TV, Internet and telecommunications.
• The ISRO now plans to cut the cost of launch vehicles, including working to use purified kerosene as rocket due just as Russia and the US have been doing.
• India’s steadily growing space business also received a major boost in January 2007 after its first Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) was launched and retrieved intact. The successful SRE-1 test indicated that the ISRO has more commercial aims. The Indian launch vehicle will be about 30 per cent cheaper for similar launch capabilities in other countries.The success of the SRE-1 was also a big milestone for India’s manner-space-flight program, as it demonstrated its reusable capabilities in space, putting it in the same league as the European Union, the US, Russia, China and Japan. The SRE-1 can now offer a platform for experiments under microgravity conditions of space. India is planning to develop a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) to reduce the cost of access to space by an order of magnitude, so that it can be competitive in the world space market. Current costs range between $12,000 and $15,000 to place a kilogram of payload in orbit

ISRO and the Industry

After the last launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), it was understood that India was ready to enter the lucrative international satellite launch vehicle market. But ISRO intends to plans to transfer the entire technology for manufacturing and launching PSLVs to the Indian entrepreneur.

Until now, all space-related technology has been the exclusive domain of the government. The role of local industry was limited to supplying some custom-made components to ISRO. But after the success of PSLV, ISRO felt it was time for a paradigm shift. Already, about 50 per cent of the components that go into a PSLV are manufactured by the local industry as per the global trends.

It should be an attractive proposition because in the immediate future, space platforms will be the mainstay of the telecommunications industry.

However, ISRO wants to continue to make custom-designed remote-sensing satellites which are unique and role-specific. It is still too early for Indian industry to show an interest in making its own remote sensing satellites.

ISRO’s interests in the forthcoming consortium will be taken care of by its commercial arm, the Antrix Corporation, which is likely to have a shareholding in this move towards the privatisation of space technology in India.