US space deal to put Isro into higher orbit
The technology safeguards agreement (TSA) signed by India and the US on Monday will expand satellite launch market and boost revenues for Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).
The agreement reached between US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and external affairs minister S.M.Krishna will pave way for execution of two major contracts bagged by Isro for launch of satellites having American component and payloads.
Executive director of Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of Isro, K R Sridhara Murthi told Financial Chronicle that the Indo-US pact will enable Isro to launch civilian satellites being deployed for non-commercial purposes by third country that have US-made components. Isro can also license satellite equipment having US components aboard.
The civilian non-commercial satellites are those launched by government-owned agencies to monitor weather, natural calamities, provide health and education coverage and take up other social services through satellite link- ups.
Hitherto, the US was unwilling to allow Isro to launch either civilian satellites with American equipment or third country satellites carrying American payloads. Satellites owned by American universities and other academic institutions can also be launched by Isro.
As per the agreement, the US will retain the right to monitor movement of such satellites to ensure that its equipment having dual use is not misused or diverted for other uses like supporting a war or creating unrest in a particular country.
Murthi said a collaborative scientific mission with French Space agency CNES the 500-kg Megha-Tropiques satellite will be launched later this year as per schedule. Similarly, the Algerian 200-kg, remote sensing satellite Alsat-2A having on board US equipment will also be launched in 2009-10 by Isro.
According to Isro officials, the agreement follows the standard template that the US negotiates with all countries. It is similar to the TSA that the US initialed with China recently.
However, they added that India will not be in a position to immediately enter the lucrative market for the launch of `commercial satellites for the US or third country pending conclusion of a separate commercial space launch agreement (CSLA) between the two.
The new dialogue architecture between the US and India with Hillary Clinton and Krishna as co-chairs provides for logically extending the TSA to CSLA.
Isro offers the homegrown PSLV to carry satellites of up to 1,700 kg into low-earth orbit at a cost thats nearly 30 per cent cheaper vis-à-vis competing agencies and private firms such as International Launch Services and two Russian organisations, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and RSC Energia.
Analysts say that the satellite launch market will touch a staggering $ 145 billion by 2016. This is against an earlier estimate of $116 billion.
While India is still a fledgling competitor in the global satellite manufacturing and launch industry -- it entered this field only two years ago -- it is beginning to make a mark with cost competitiveness and flexible time schedules.
According to Antrixs executive director, the Indian space agency has made slow but steady progress in the booming but capital-intensive satellite launch market. The segment contributed over $20 million or 10 per cent of Isros total revenues of Rs 1,000 crore ($208 million) during 2008-09.
Isro has so far put into space 16 foreign satellites from countries like Belgium, Canada, Korea, Germany, Japan and Indonesia, mostly riding piggyback on its own satellites.
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