Indian Space Research Organisation’s PSLV, known for its exemplary track record of launching 209 satellites of 28 countries till now, is turning into a money maker for the space agency.
On June 23 this year, PSLV-C38 had launched 712-kg Cartosat-2 satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites.
Of the 30 nano satellites, while one belonged to Noorul Islam University from Tamil Nadu, the rest 29 were from 14 foreign countries.
The government informed the Lok Sabha that the launch of 29 foreign satellites helped Antrix Corporation Ltd (ACL), the commercial and marketing arm of Isro, earn Rs 45 crore (6.1 million euros).
Before the June 23 multiple launches, Isro made the world record when its PSLV C37 launched 104 satellites in one go on February 15 this year.
However, the space agency did not reveal how much it earned from that record-breaking launch. Out of the 104 satellites, 96 were from the US, three from India and one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UAE.
Not only satellite launches, even Isro’s interplanetary missions are cheaper than that of foreign space agencies like NASA.
India’s Mass Orbiter Mission (MOM), which was launched in 2014, cost Isro around $74 million (Rs 450cr) as opposed to Nasa’s Mars orbiter MAVEN (launched in November 2013), which had a total mission cost of $672 million (approximately over Rs 4,000cr).
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