India will launch a dozen foreign satellites in the next couple of years, according to the chief of the country’s space agency quoted in Aviation Week.
“We have firm orders today for about 12 satellites, which are scheduled to be launched in the coming two years,” Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says. The satellites are mainly Canadian, German and Indonesian, including a 1,760-lb. spacecraft environment-monitoring satellite from DLF Germany.
What this means:
While India has launched 25 foreign satellites in the past, the increased pace of launches indicates the growing confidence in ISRO and its ability to compete on the world stage. Its subsidiary Antrix is already a signifcant supplier of remote sensing data to entitites worldwide.
