India's cut-price space rides
By Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI - In the burgeoning world market for satellite launches and space services, India offers the cheapest taxi rides on its rockets.

On Thursday afternoon, for a mere US$15 million, India launched a meteorological satellite into "geo-synchronous" transfer orbit some 36,000 kilometers above the equator using a modified version of its highly successful space workhorse, the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).

So far, the versatile PSLVs have been limited to injecting satellites, both Indian and foreign, into polar "sun-synchronous" orbit, defined as a loop around the poles at a modest height of between 800 and 900 km.

"If we succeed with this, we can then think of launching communications satellites on the PSLV," said P S Goel, one of the directors of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which has its headquarters in the southern city of Bangalore.

Launching communications satellites is expensive because they have to be positioned 36,000 km out in space, and that requires larger rockets with larger motors using more sophisticated fuels than the PSLV.

In October last year, India used the PSLV to simultaneously inject three satellites into space, the equivalent of cramming more passengers into a taxi. The 'piggyback' riders on the PSLV (called PSLV-C3) included a German satellite and a Belgian one moving along with an Indian passenger.

India collected a million dollars for transporting Germany's 92 kg Bispectral and Infrared Remote Detection (BIRD) satellite and another million dollars from Belgium for its Project for Onboard Autonomy (PROBA) satellite, weighing 94 kilograms. All three were low-orbit, remote-sensing satellites.

Although BIRD and PROBA were almost of equal weight, their owners wanted them placed in different orbits - BIRD in a circular orbit at 569 km and PROBA in a higher elliptical orbit varying in altitude between 568 km and 638 km.

Antrix Corp, the commercial arm of ISRO , marked its entry into commercial launches in 1999 when a PSLV (PSLV-C2) successfully carried into space South Korea's KITSAT satellite and Germany's TUBSAT along with its own OCEANSAT.

With each new mission, the PSLV's lifting capabilities have been enhanced, from a 40-kg payload in a 1980 launch until its present capacity to place either a three-ton satellite in low-earth orbit or a 1,050-pound satellite like Wednesday's METSAT into high geo-synchronous orbit.

It helps that the METSAT itself was built lighter, using space-age carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) instead of aluminum. "CFRP met the requirements of being light while still being a good conductor of electricity," V R Katti, program director, said.

ISRO officials say that while India spent US$20 million for a PSLV launch three years ago, China spent 12 times as much for a comparable Long March 3B rocket. The officials expected a rising demand for the launch of low-orbit satellites and the PSLV perfectly fit the bill especially because of its record for reliability.

There are four areas where Antrix Corp has positioned itself in the space bazaar - launching satellites, supplying sub-systems for satellites made in other countries, and providing services for tracking and monitoring at the master control facility in Hassan town in southern Karnatka state.

Antrix also leases transponders aboard its INSAT series of communication satellites that are built indigenously but launched by the French Arianespace agency. Besides that, it operates a constellation of five remote-sensing satellites. On average, ISRO earns more than $100 million from commercial sales, through Antrix Corp, of broadcasting, weather and meteorological data to various agencies, including the EOSAT Corp in the United States.

Besides the earnings, India's satellites have had an enormous impact domestically, helping broadcasters, cellular telephone operators and farmers. The METSAT, for instance, is expected to help more reliable weather forecasting. Meanwhile, the space research organization reports progress on its bigger Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV), which uses the controversial cryogenic (super cold) engine technology imported from Russia against opposition from the United States because of its possible use in building inter-continental ballistic missiles.

According to an Indian space research official, an indigenous version of the Russian cryogenic engine has been successfully test-fired at a facility in southern Tamil Nadu state earlier this year.

In April last year, India successfully carried out a test flight of its GSLV using Russian engines that, once fully operational, will make India's space program completely independent and halve the cost of getting its heavier satellites launched by foreign agencies.

For the moment, though, each GSLV launch costs $300 million and ISRO's first try in March, last year, ended in an aborted launch, although the vehicle itself was safe.

There has been criticism of India's satellite program, particularly of the fact that its earth-observation birds can, and likely do, double as military spy satellites. ISR's chairman K Kasturirangan denies this, "Whether you call earth observation just that or spying is a matter or interpretation," he said, adding that there was "a policy on how high resolution data should be used consistent with the country's security considerations".

India lays emphasis on international cooperation for its space program; for example, in March of this year ISRO signed a memorandum of understanding with the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) that covers cooperation in satellite technology and training programs. Also, ISRO and the French National Space Agency (CNES) are cooperating on a study of the climate using the joint satellite mission "Megha Tropiques", in which a PSLV is due to launch a French satellite in 2005.

(Inter Press Service)