ISRO’s commercial subsidiary gets first order

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has established its second commercial subsidiary - the New Space India Limited (NSIL) and this newly established commercial venture have got its first customer. An American space rideshare company - Spaceflight has booked a payload slot on the first commercial launch of ISRO’s newest rocket – Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). The first commercial flight of SSLV is scheduled to take place from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at the end of this year. Curt Blake, CEO and President of Spaceflight said, “SSLV is perfectly suited for launching multiple microsatellites at a time and supports multiple orbital drop-offs. It is designed for the launch-on-demand concept with very quick turn-around capability in between launches. We are very excited to work with NSIL to offer customers the option to launch from SSLV, hence our purchase of its first available launch”. The SSLV is eligible for placing small satellites weighing up to 500 kg in low earth orbits and in its first mission it will deploy commercial spacecraft in two different orbital planes. Radhakrishnan D, Director of NSIL said, “We are taking advantage of the growth in the small satellite market to deliver more launch options with the mini-launcher”.

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