Antrix hits payload dirt in global small satellite surge

Gets orders to launch 68 satellites by 2018

Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), has orders to launch 68 satellites - the largest so far - as global small satellite makers scramble to hurl them on India’s workhorse polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) rocket.

The orders include contracts from US weather forecasting satellite company, PlanetiQ, which has signed a deal to launch 12 satellites on India’s PSLV by 2017 and a heavier earth observation satellite by an unnamed customer.

India’s space agency is positioning PSLV as a reliable rocket to hurl small satellites, at a time there is a global shortage of rockets and a surge in global satellite makers planning to hurl hundreds of small satellites. Antrix estimates over 2,500 satellites to be built over the next few years, as start-ups and global firms look at using satellites as small as one kilo for navigation, maritime and surveillance. The biggest is that of OneWeb, a global consortium that includes Virgin Group, Bharti Enterprises and Qualcomm, aiming to hurl 648 small satellites and form a constellation and beam high-speed internet to local terminals. Bharti has committed it would work with Isro to launch several of these satellites.

Isro, so far, has launched 74 satellites for foreign customers, including the US, Israel, Singapore and Britain.

India will witness increased competition for launch business from players such as SpaceX, BlueOrigin, Rocket Lab and Firefly Systems, who will begin to offer services from next year.

Also Read: Devas Moves UK, France Courts Over Antrix Dues

“We will try to be more competitive (to win contracts),” Rakesh Sasibhushan, chairman & managing director, Antrix Corp, said here on Tuesday.

Isro will also offer its heavier rocket geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-Mk-II) to customers to hurl two-tonne communication satellites into space, a market it sees would open up for India. “We are constrained by our capacity. Because of the cryogenic engine, we can only build so many rockets,” said Sasibhushan.

The operational GSLV Mk-II rocket, with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage, is expected to be launched later this year, taking weather satellite into space.

Isro is already building a consortium of public and private sector firms such as Hindustan Aeronautics, Godrej and Larson & Toubro to jointly assemble a PSLV launcher and offer it as a service to customers globally. At the same time, Isro is also offering satellite assembling technology to private firms, so that they look at global contracts to assemble them and launch in India. “Small satellites are going to become a big business for us,” said Sasibhushan.

Antrix will share technology for building solar panels, sub-assemblies and components for companies that plan to enter the high-technology space business, he said. It will also expect local firms to indigenise components that are imported and being used in satellites, while ready to open up semiconductor labs, the country’s only chipmaking facility to build components specifically for space requirements.

‘Antrix will appeal as bulwark against damages’

Antrix Corp will appeal against any verdict to protect itself from damages in the legal battle it is waging with Devas Multimedia, a satellite maker whose contract was cancelled by the government.

“The matter is sub judice. We will appeal against all judgments in any court,” said Rakesh Sasibhushan, chairman & managing director, Antrix, here on Tuesday.

Satellite firm Devas Multimedia has informed Antrix Corp, the commercial arm of India’s space agency, that it has sought approval from the courts in England and France to pursue action locally to recover $672 million award it won from the International Commercial Court.

In September, Devas won the international tribunal award against Antrix over cancelling an order to lease two satellites to the country. In 2012, India had cancelled the satellite order, citing national security issues after the deal was caught in a political maelstrom that emerged after the 2G scam. The $300 million satellite leasing deal, signed in 2005, had mandated Devas to offer two satellites that operate on the so-called S-band to transmit high-speed internet on mobile devices. India took a view that it should be restricted to strategic purposes, not for commercial reasons.