Envisaging a more active participation from domestic industry in India's
space programme, Isro today said it looked forward to industry built
and assembled launch vehicles in three to four years.
"About three to
four years down the line, our target is to see industry-built, assembled
and launched PSLV," Isro Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said.
Addressing
the media after successful launch of Astrosat, the country's first
observatory satellite, and six foreign satellites onboard PSLV-C30 from
here, he pointed out to the participation of about 150 companies in the
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle programme.
Responding to a query on
the Saarc satellite proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the
member countries, Kumar said Sri Lanka had given its acceptance on
frequency while the space agency was awaiting the same from others.
Plans
were afoot to launch the satellite by end of 2016, with both exclusive
transponders and shared ones to be allotted to the members of the South
Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc).
Isro's projects
in the coming months include a commercial launch carrying six Singapore
satellites, a couple of navigational satellites and GSAT-15, Kumar
said.
When asked about today's launch of four satellites from the
US, which had in the past imposed sanctions on the country, he said the
"world doesn't remain stagnant".
The Indo-US relationship was
growing even as the two were involved in the NISAR satellite programme,
he said, adding Chandrayaan-I had US payloads.
Countries were also collaborating in space programme due to financial constraints, he said.
Asked about invitation to Isro to be part of International Space Station, he said no decision has been taken so far.
With launches like Mars Orbiter Mission and Astrosat, Isro has managed to reach out to institutions and youth, he said.
Asked
whether today's launch was the Indian equivalent of the Hubble
telescope of the US as reported in a section of the media, Kumar said,
"I do not think it is correct" to say so.
Astrosat Project
Director K S Sarma said Astrosat cannot be compared with Hubble as it
belongs to a different class with huge lens.
"We have different
kind of features," he said. Post the successful injection of Astrosat
into the orbit, he said, it was "healthy and doing well".
"This satellite is very unique as we have sophisticated and sensitive astronomical equipment," he said.
Sarma
and other scientists involved in the project said that stringent
environment and cleanliness standards were followed to ensure there was
no contamination to the x-ray or the telescope.
Kumar expressed
satisfaction that with the launch of Astrosat, Indian institutions were
increasing their contribution to the space programme.In fact many
students have been using data sent by Chandrayaan-I for PhD thesis,he
said.
Officials said that data being sent by Astrosat for one year
would be accessed by Isro officials and then would be made public for
those registered with the organisation.
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