ISRO now ready for a full-fledged commercial launch
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has geared up for a full commercial launch on the 16th of September which is a Sunday. The PSLV C42 will lift off with two British satellites. The launch will take place at the Sriharikota launch pad.
The two UK satellites are named Novasar and S1-4. They weigh 450 kilograms each. No Indian satellites will be involved in this mission. Thus, the two UK satellites will act as the main payload. These satellites will be used Britain for earth observation.
ISRO chairman, K Sivan said, “It will be a full-fledged commercial launch. However, this will not be the first time, ISRO is going for the full commercial launch”
The first time ISRO had launched a rocket solely for commercial purposes was way back in 2007. On 23rd April 2007, The PSLV-CA carried Italy’s astronomical satellite AGILE as the main payload. Again, on 10th July 2015, the agency broke through another milestone. It carried out the heaviest commercial mission. PSLV-XL lifted off with five UK satellites together weighing 1439 kg.
Till now, ISRO has launched 237 foreign satellites for 28 countries. The agency is making the utmost efforts to enter the competitive market. It wants to launch a large number of commercial satellites. The agency wants to gain a huge profit from the global market.
However, currently, ISRO holds a meagre 0.6% share in the global satellite launch market. This small percentage is estimated to be worth Rs. 36,000 crore. On the other hand, the private space agency, SpaceX owned Elon Musk now has a 45% share in the commercial satellite launch market. This growth has been exponential as in 2013, the company only had a 5% share.
Due to the low prices and reusable rocket technology, it is estimated to dominate with a 60% share.
All in all, ISRO’s progress is weak yet visible. It can be safely said that in the coming years, the country shall witness exponential growth in the global space market.
