The Indian Space Research Organisation earned a revenue of Rs. 300 crores last year, including a profit of Rs. 30 crores, in selling remote-sensing data and pictures to others, contracting other countries’ satellites to fly on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and so on, according to the ISRO Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair. ISRO had a 15 per cent market share in the world for remote-sensing data. It had a contract for launching a satellite called Agile for the European Space Agency by the PSLV next year.
Mr. Nair said the next PSLV flight would be in February 2005 from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and it would put in orbit CARTOSAT-1 for mapping purposes. He addressed a press conference on Monday, 20th September, 2004 after the successful launch of the GSLV-FO1 that put the EDUSAT in orbit.
K. Narayana, Director, SDSC, SHAR, said the second launch pad was fully ready for the launch for the PSLV next year. It had to be qualified for integrating the cryogenic stage of the GSLV. The next GSLV flight in 2005 would be from the second launch pad. The state-of the-art second launch pad had been built at a cost of Rs. 350 crores. It is a “universal” launch pad in which any kind of vehicle, the PSLV, the current generation of the GSLV, GSLV-mark II and GSLV mark III can be integrated vertically and launched.
