Buckshot: India’s Space Agency to Launch 68 Satellites in One Mission

The satellites are mainly meant for conducting experiments, data generation, image-capturing and transmitting signals for communications, broadcasting, remote-sensing, earth observation and weather conditions.

New Delhi (Sputnik) – The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has set a new aim in the satellite launching business. Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of ISRO, plans to launch 68 satellites in one mission next year. A spokesperson from ISRO told to Sputnik, "Our commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, is in talks with companies where we may launch 68 smaller and nano satellites in one mission."

Antrix has also bagged an order to launch a heavier earth observation satellite from an overseas customer, revealed a source.    

Rakesh Sasibhushan, Chairman and Managing Director of Antrix Corporation, says, "We have fresh orders to launch 68 satellites from various countries, including 12 from PlanetiQ, a US-based weather forecasting satellite firm."

Antrix estimates that about 2,500 satellites will be built in the next decade to meet the needs of countries and private customers for navigation, maritime, surveillance and other space-based applications.

Earlier, on June 22 of this year, ISRO successfully launched 20 satellites in a single mission, onboard its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle ‘PSLV-C34'. During this mission, 17 satellites belonging to Indonesia, Germany, Canada and the US were launched as co-passengers along with Indian primary payload CARTOSAT-2 series of satellite.  During the last financial year (2015-16), Antrix earned revenue of approximately USD 34.5 mln through commercial launch services, which is about 0.6% of the global launch services market.