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Global majors in talks with ISRO for medium size satellites
Friday, 07 February 2003, 20:30 IST
BANGALORE: Global majors Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Alcatel are in talks with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for joint production and marketing of medium sized satellites for the global market.
"The talks are at an exploratory stage with the three global majors. They are all looking for some kind of an alliance to produce and market medium sized satellites (weighing two tonnes)," Sridhara Murthi, executive director, Antrix Corporation, told IANS.
"We have a particular need for ISRO's expertise. There are not many players in the world that can produce satellites like the Insat series. ISRO has good capabilities to produce small and medium sized satellites," J.B. Malhotra, national executive (India and Sri Lanka) of Lockheed Martin told reporters.
"We could provide some technology that ISRO does not have and we can do the marketing with our brand equity, globally. The global market is depressed for medium size satellites but it should look up sooner than later," he added.
Lockheed Martin is the biggest U.S. exhibitor at the Aero India 2003, Asia's biggest aerospace exhibition under way here.
This is the first time that 10 U.S. companies are taking part in the Aero India show after the lifting of the U.S. sanctions against India, imposed after the nuclear tests of 1998.
Small satellites cost $1 to 2 million while medium sized ones cost between $10 and 15 million. But industry officials say the need for countries to have smaller satellites would go up in the next few years.
Lockheed Martin is also discussing with ISRO the possibility of launching its satellites.
"It is planning to launch five to six satellites in the next 18 months," said Malhotra.
ISRO currently uses the Araine space agency's facilities at Kourou, French Guinea, to launch its satellites. But it has launched smaller satellites on the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) from countries like South Korea, Belgium and Singapore.
"We are also in talks with some countries in the South East Asian region for producing satellites," Murthi said.
Antrix Corporation, the commercial venture of ISRO, has been also providing mission support services by tracking satellites of other countries from the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan and its tracking unit at Bangalore.
It has recently supplied sub-assembly systems for a Japanese satellite that would help balance the satellite in orbit, Murthi added.
Source: IANS
Source: IANS