ISRO eyes bigger share in global satellite launch sector

New Delhi: With the successful placing in orbit of 36 OneWeb satellites on board the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-3) rocket, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now eying a bigger share in the global satellite launch market.

A recent report by the Indian Space Association (ISpA) and Ernst and Young (E&Y) had pegged the global space economy at USD 447 billion with the satellite launch segment accounting for USD 6 billion.

ISRO has already carved out a niche for itself in the satellite launch segment with its old warhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket earning the space agency millions of dollars in business.

With the LVM-3 rocket, capable of placing 10 tonne payloads in low earth orbits, ISRO now aims to launch heavier satellites or multiple smaller satellites.

Sunday's launch of 36 satellites for OneWeb had a combined weight of over 5.7 tonnes, and ISRO plans to repeat the launch for another batch of 36 satellites in February next year.

"The next LVM-3 will be ready by February 2023, when we plan to carry out another launch for OneWeb," ISRO Chairman S Somanath said.

"We want to do one launch of LVM-3 every three to four months depending on the commercial demand," he said in a recent interaction here.

ISRO had bagged the contract to launch OneWeb satellites in April this year as the Russia-Ukraine conflict put a spanner in the UK-based company's plans to launch satellites using Russian rockets from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.