ISRO plans to source 5 PSLV rockets from domestic firms

Targeting to realise 12 Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) per year from the domestic private sector, Indian space agency ISRO's commercial arm NewSpace India Ltd has issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) for first manufacturing five of these rockets.

According to NewSpace India, the Indian industry consortium will be responsible for end-to-end realisation of the solid and liquid fuel powered stages/engines of the PSLV rockets, used by the ISRO to launch satellites into Low Earth Orbit and having the capability to carry multiple satellites and put them into different orbits.

A pre-EoI conference is scheduled at the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) headquarters in Bengaluru on August 26 while the interested parties have to submit their EoI queries on or before August 21.

As on date, PSLVs, in addition to launching several national satellites, have launched 297 international customer satellites from 33 countries.

The officials of ISRO had earlier told IANS that a PSLV costs about Rs 200 crore and hence the five PSLVs are expected to involve a business of about Rs 1,000 crore.

The Indian industry partners will be permitted to utilize the capital-intensive facilities already realized within ISRO centres under Government Owned Company Operated (GOCO) model for this purpose wherever appropriate/feasible.

Upon successful and satisfactory completion of realization of first lot of five PSLVs, NewSpace India/ISRO will enhance the scope for realisation of PSLVs to 12 per annum, under a separate contract.

The private industry will use the existing approved supply chain of ISRO for the purpose. IANS