By IANS
Chennai : A senior official of India's Department of Space Friday said here that the cost of launching satellites from India would "come down".
Additional Secretary, Department of Space, S. Renganath told the visiting parliamentary consultative committee of the department that once the Indian Space Research Organisation has set up a number of launch pads for the GSLV rocket, the cost of launches from India will plummet.
At present it has only two GSLV launch pads in Sriharikota, in Andhra Pradesh.
The Indian government spent only two percent of its revenue on space, compared to 11 percent by the USA and nine percent by European countries, he said.
For a 35 MH satellite, India spent only one million dollars while western nations spent as much as $1.6 million to $2.4 million, Renganath said. These countries charge $10,000 to $12,000 per kg of weight to be lifted, depending on the satellite's orbit.
France charges $21,000 and the USA $25,000 for launching a 1-kg satellite but ISRO charges only $14,000, he said.
Even remote sensing data collection costs were cheaper for India, Renganath said.
"This is due to the high technical capabilities of Indian scientists", the official said.
ISRO began its commercial foray into the launch service market, with the 100-kg KITSAT-3 for South Korea and 50-kg DLR-TUBSAT for Germany in May 1999.
In October 2001 it took up a 100-kg class BIRD for Germany and a PROBA for Belgium.
In January this year, PSLV-C7 took the 56-kg Lapan-Tubsat for Indonesia and the 6-kg Pehuensat-1 of Argentina piggyback, along with Cartosat-2.
Then in April, its polar satellite launch vehicle, PSLV put into orbit Agile, a 352-kg Italian astronomical satellite. Agile had an exclusive ride, paying $11 million.
Antrix Corporation, ISRO's commercial arm, says it is aiming at the emerging market of small scientific satellites of up to the 600-kg class, which the European and the US launch majors such as Arianespace, Lockheed Martin and Boeing have moved out of.
ISRO officials have said the launch prices will be attractive.
The new launch deals on ISRO's cards is NLS-4, a cluster of six tiny (nano) satellites of 1-5 kg, in a mission coordinated by the Toronto University. NLS-4 may be flown towards 2007-end. Singapore University has contracted Antrix to fly its XSAT on the PSLV.
Renganath also said that IRSO planned to set up 4,000 Village Resource Centres, which would help spread telemedicine and teleducation in the country. "Now the country has only 260 VRCs," he noted.