‘Chandrayaan will launch by the third quarter’

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The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) made history on April 28 by placing a record ten satellites in their respective orbits in a single launch. It was a day in the sun for Indian space science and Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair, who says the mission launcher—the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV)—has now found a place in the global market. With his focus firmly on the upcoming Moon mission, Chandrayaan, slated for the year-end, Nair is aiming for a 10% slice of the $2-billion global launch business. Nair, who is also the chairman of Indian Space Commission, discussed Isro’s missions, future business and the launch market with FE’s Reema Jose. Excerpts:

The PSLV has proved its mettle with the recent launch. However, Isro is yet to see similar success with the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV). What is the progress on the indigenous cryogenic engine for the GSLV?

For the GSLV, we initially made use of a Russian cryogenic engine. Now, we have a programme to replace it with an indigenous system. The system has reached a stage where all the qualification tests have been completed. After the initial tests, a stage has been fully configured and it also underwent testing. Right now, we are in the process of preparing the flight stage. That should be ready by the end of this year. We can target a GSLV launch with an indigenous system by this year-end.

Will the next launch be of a foreign payload? How would revenues alter once the GSLV is stabilised?

At the moment, we don’t have any proposal from any foreign company. There aren’t very many satellite manufacturers in the medium segments. We are one. We are trying to sell some satellites to our foreign customers and are also trying to offer launch services along with them. If those succeed, yes, we will have more launches in connection with the GSLV.

Would the role of Isro’s workhorse PSLV change once GSLV stabilises?

The PSLV is placed in a slightly different area. It is mainly meant for low-earth orbit and sun-synchronous orbit. It has a very unique marketshare there. We’ve recently launched two exclusive satellites and eight micro satellites. So, PSLV will continue in that role. But the GSLV is essentially for communication satellites.

How has progress on the Chandrayaan launch been? What caused its postponement?