(IANS)
New Delhi, Nov 20: To meet the sky-rocketing domestic technology and knowledge-based demands, India’s space agency needs to at least double the number of operational satellites in the coming days, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said here Monday.
While currently India has 42 operational satellites for different purposes including communication, navigation and research, the ISRO chief said that it’s “significantly less” to capture the demand of the nation.
Asserting the need of reaching out to the private players to enhance the capabilities and space infrastructure, the space scientist — currently the Secretary Department of Space and Chairman ISRO — said that country aims to achieve its space endeavours at significant low cost, that too for improving the governance and the quality of life of the people.
“What we have today is 42 satellites in operation, still we are significantly short of the capacity needed for whether it is earth observation, microwave technologies, communication, or navigation, we need probably more than double this number,” Aluru Seelin Kiran Kumar said.
He was talking at the two-day international seminar on “Indian Space Programme – trend and opportunities for industries”, organised by FICCI and ISRO, inaugurated here Monday. Asserting that the world is moving very fast, he said ISRO needs to increase the number of launches every year.
“We are trying to increase the pace with which we are working, we are trying to increase the number of launches per year so that we can quickly capture with the demands that country has,” said the ISRO Chairman.
According to M. Annadurai, Director ISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru, Indian currently launches three to four satellites annually for itself, while the need is to launch 15 to 18 satellites annually to meet the local strategic and knowledge based demands. Stating that ISRO is currently engaged with over 500 industries, ISRO chief said making use of all the sections of society and its talent is required to enhance the capabilities.
