India Plans to Launch Low Cost Lightweight Satellites

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 12, 2002

India Plans to Launch Low Cost Lightweight Satellites

India is scheduled to launch its first meteorology-specific satellite, Metsat, onboard a modified version of the polar synchronous satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) next month.

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India is scheduled to launch its first meteorology-specific satellite, Metsat, onboard a modified version of the polar synchronous satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) next month.

Metsat is the first of several satellites specifically monitoring weather and oceanography planned by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) by 2006.

ISRO officials said Sunday that this was the first step towardsthe space department's cost-cutting strategy of launching low-costlightweight satellites carrying single payload on board India's own launch vehicles.

While at least three of these satellites would be in a geostationary orbit like the Insat satellites series, it would incur large expenses if they had to be launched through foreign agencies like Arianspace, which charges about 60 million US dollars per launch for multi-payload Insat satellites.

The idea to utilize indigenous launch vehicle capabilities to carry single payload satellites to cater to specific sectors like meteorology or communication is aimed at reducing these costs, which are understood to be at least 40 percent lesser than those charged by foreign satellite launching agencies.

While India's GSLV, which will have the capability to carry satellites for geostationary orbits like Insat, is still in a trial phase having undergone just one launch in April 2001 liftingthe Gsat-1 satellite, the Metsat, a geostationary satellite, wouldinstead Launched on board a modified PSLV, the Press Trust of India said.

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