The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will start marketing its launch vehicle to Bill Gates-promoted Teledesic global communications project after the launch of the IRS-2D satellite within the next fortnight.
The IRS-2D is the first commercial launch by ISROs Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) marking an end to hiring Russian launch services for the IRS (remote sensing) class satellites. The move will save ISRO over $ 15 million.
ISRO has had a round of negotiations with the Teledesic consortium, which is aiming to have an ambitions Internet-in-the-sky project with over 700 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The talks with Teledesic on payload and other details are expected to begin a month or two after the IRS launch.
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Though Teledesic has not formally announced the start of it satellite launching effort, the preparatory work by the consortium has begun and talks are being held with various vendors. The project will offer a combination of Internet, mobile phone and fax and global positioning services. Its main focus is to make Internet completely skyborne to take its dependence off public phone lines.
ISRO is expected to price it launch services the cheapest in the business as its development cost has been spread over a number of years by government funds. ISROs advantage is that it does not have to start looking for profits from its first international launch, said an ISRO official. We can price our services on a cost plus basis and still be very cheap by international standards.
ISROs competition for cheap launches will be China which has had a mixed record of commercial launches. In comparison, the PSLV rocket has been proven in three out of four launches.
Russia, which has entered the commercial launch business in a big way, is expensive thanks to a US-Russian treaty that Russia will not price its launch services below 7.5 per cent of the US or Western European price.
The global communications satellite projects like Teledesic and Iridium are expected to boost the demand for satellite launch services in the next five to 10 years. The PSLV can launch one 1000 kg satellite or two 500 kg ones though it has not been tried out for multiple launches. The PSLV is ideally suited for small LEO satellites as it can be a very cost effective platform for such launches.