Countdown for PSLV-C42 launch starts, two satellites go up Sunday night

Full-fledged commercial launch, for an independent company within Airbus group, is scheduled for Sunday night

The countdown for the launch of PSLV-C42 started on Saturday at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The full-fledged commercial launch, for an independent company within the Airbus group, is scheduled for Sunday night.

Isro said that countdown started today at 01:08 pm (IST) for the launch of PSLV-C42 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota near Chennai.

The rocket will carry two foreign satellites, NovaSAR & S1-4, which are set to be launched into a 583-km Sun synchronous orbit tomorrow at 10.08 p.m. (IST). The launch is for two international customer satellites of Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), United Kingdom.

Isro will be launching PSLV-C42 mission in its core alone configuration. 

Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of the Isro has been contracted by SSTL for launching their two satellites, namely, NovaSAR and S1-4.

In 2009 Airbus bought a majority shareholding from the University of Surrey, allowing SSTL to fulfil its growth potential.  SSTL is an independent company within Airbus.

These satellites would together weigh nearly 889 kg. Another is that SSTL is part of Airbus. In the following link, where it mentions about the company, it is written: 

The rocket will take off from the First Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. Both the satellites are planned to be launched by PSLV-C42 into a 583 kms Sun Synchronous Orbit.

NovaSAR with S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a small satellite intended for forest mapping, land use and ice cover monitoring, flood and disaster monitoring, Ship detection and Maritime monitoring.

ISRO's PSLV-C42 carrying two earth observing satellites, NovaSAR and S1-4 of Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), UK, ready to be launched from Sathish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018.

S1-4 is a high resolution Optical Earth Observation Satellite used for surveying resources, environment monitoring, urban management and disaster monitoring.

Antrix Chairman-cum-Managing Director Rakesh Sashibhusan recently told Business Standard the percentage share of Indian commercial offerings is very low compared to the total business volume in the sector across the world, which is at around $357 billion.

"This is a huge market and if you are able to position a particular launch vehicle with appropriate pricing in the market, you can definitely capture a percentage share of it," he said.

Antrix is eyeing atleast 10 per cent of this market, it is a huge amount. With the kind of capacities that Isro is planning, probably the Organisation should be able generate Rs 15-20 billion from the small satellite launch services alone, he said.

Today India's position in global Rs 8.5 trillion satellite market is around 7.2 per cent, while in the Rs 357 billion launch services market its share is one per cent. Till now, Isro has launched 237 satellites for 28 countries.

In addition to that the Isro's big launch vehicles, when they go into production mode, including PSLV which Isro is actively pursuing the industry for production, and the launch revenue will still go up and we can increase our market share

On April 23, 2007, the space agency had for the first time launched a rocket solely for commercial purpose.  

Its PSLV-CA carried Italy's astronomical satellite AGILE as the main payload. Thereafter, on July 10, 2015, Isro achieved another milestone when it carried out the heaviest commercial mission successfully as its PSLV-XL lifted off with five UK satellites together weighing 1,439 kg.