Though ISRO only charged a promotional price for the launch of the two foreign satellites, it demonstrated the country's technological capabilities in the field and signalled that ISRO was ready to talk business, an official said.

On May 10, ISRO had advertised in the international space magazine "Space News" its capabilities to offer polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) services to put a 1000-kg, or two 500-kg, or even smaller 100-kg foreign satellites into orbit. "Welcome Aboard Pslv", the advertisement said, detailing the various types of satellites that could be launched by the Indian rocket.

These include small satellites of up to 100 kg that can ride piggy-back with bigger Indian satellites, to a fully dedicated missionfor a foreign satellite up to 1200 kg weight in a polar orbit, or even heavier ones in an inclined non-polar orbit. ISRO chairman Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan said a number of countries, including the US, and those from Europe and Asia, have shown interest and ISRO is evaluating the proposals. The organisation is pricing its launcher services about 20-30 per cent than its global rivals.It costs $1.0-1.5 million to launch satellites of this size into space, Kasturirangan said.

But piggy-back rides into space, such as the two witnessed today, where the main satellite to be launched is an Indian one and the foreign spacecraft are auxiliary, may cost less.

ISRO has not revealed the exact launch fees for the Korean and German satellites launched by PSLV, but said they were charged a lower "promotional price".

ISRO hopes to reap dividends from the vast number of small scientific satellites that researchers worldwide like to launch for conducting experiments.

"A lot of international space scientists have smallpayloads for various experiments, for which they cannot use a big dedicated rocket for launching. These can go as piggy-back on launch vehicles like PSLV." "We are looking at this market," the official said.

By cutting down the time of building a PSLV to less than two months - from 90-100 days to just 55 days - ISRO can have two launches each year, according to Kasturirangan. Kasturirangan told PTI that launch at Sriharikota was intended to "provide a visibility or window to the world to the kind of capabilities we have."

ISRO has already signed a deal with Verhaert Design and Development of Belgium to launch a 100-kg satellite `Proba' next year. The organisation has also signed an agreement with the European agency Arianespace to jointly offer either a PSLV or Ariane rocket to launch small and medium satellites. "Bookings are expected to come soon," the official said.

According to a global survey of satellite launch services demand for both two-tonne geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and low and mediumearth orbit (LEO and MEO) satellites of up to one tonne will peak by 2002.

The survey said that in the past, GEO satellites had dominated the launch market. But with rapid deployment of mobile communications constellations, LEO satellites will account for 60 per cent of the launches by 2005.