Economically resurgent and technologically vibrant China is steadily and quietly expanding its influence over a large part of the developing world by making available its expertise, services and hardware for building and launching satellites. China’s spreading influence - courtesy of space technology is quite evident in many third world countries. Nearer home, China, which has all along been assisting Pakistan in developing its space programme, has signed an agreement with Pakistan, granting US$ 200 million for a satellite project. On its part, the oil rich Nigeria has signed a US$157-million agreement with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), the primary marketing arm of Chinese aerospace industry, for replacing its NIGCOMSAT-1 domestic satellite. China, which is going great guns in Latin America, has assured Bolivia of its assistance in developing an indigenous space programme and also getting its first satellite off the ground. Media reports also suggest that China is building and launching a communications spacecraft for Laos. With a view to attract more customers to its commercial launch service, China is now building its fourth launch complex in Hainan island. All the three currently operational Chinese launch bases are landlocked and have no access to sea.

Against this backdrop, Ajay Lele, Research Fellow at the New Delhi based Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) has suggested that India should take a leaf out of  Chinese experience to expand its ”soft power” by using space technology as a tool. Indeed, the Bangalore based Antrix Corp, the commercial arm of the Indian space programme, has made modest forays in the global space market for launch services, sale of satellite resources data and spacecraft hardware and components in addition to mission support service. Set up in 1992 as a Government of India owned company, Antrix has reported a turn over of Rs10,000-million during 2008-09 and is aiming at an annual growth of 25 per cent. Antrix’s growth strategy is based on rapidly expanding its business to new geographical areas and enhancing the range of services offered by it. In particular Antrix is looking at nations like Algeria, Brazil and Kazakhstan to boost its commercial prospects.  Meanwhile Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered to make available Indian satellite resources data to South East Asian countries for managing natural disasters. He has also offered Indian help in launching small satellites built by them.

Antrix continues to forge ahead with the sale of Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS)   imageries over a wide part of the world through distributors and satellite imagery marketing outfits. Satellite data sale currently account for around 10 per cent Antrix’s turn over. While in Europe and North America there is fairly good demand for IRS data, the sale of IRS data products has been growing in Asian countries including Nepal, Turkey and Japan.

 

A significant achievement of Antrix was the successful launch in December 2008 of W2M advanced communications satellite, built by Antrix on commercial terms in partnership with EADS/Astrium for Eutelsat, the European satellite operator. A second contract, under implementation under the EADS/Astrium-Antrix alliance is Hylas satellite for Avanti Communications Group of UK, is making rapid progress.

In the area of satellite launch service, Antrix has succeeded in promoting the four-stage space workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) as a preferred vehicle for launching small and nano satellites as piggyback payloads. PSLV, which is a versatile platform for delivering a variety of satellite payloads into a variety of orbits, during its September 2009 mission launched Indian Ocean watch satellite Oceansat-11 along with six nano satellites of international customers as piggy back payloads in one go. In April 2008, PSLV established a new record by launching as many as 10 satellites in one go. Of these eight were nano satellites built by research institutions in Europe, Canada and Japan and launched under a commercial arrangement with Antrix. In January, a PSLV flight launched Israel’s reconnaissance satellite TECSAR under a commercial deal. Prior to that in April 2007, PSLV was deployed to launch Italian research satellite Agile, marking a major step for Antrix in the global launch service market.

Of the 39 satellites launched so far by Antrix, 17 have been Indian and the rest belong to overseas customers. Antrix now has the contract for launching Algeria’s Alsat-2 satellite, Italy’s IMSAT spacecraft as piggy back payloads. Also in the line for launch is X-sat micro satellite of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU). PSLV has already launched satellites from countries including South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, Belgium and Germany. Antrix is also exploring the African market with a particular focus on Nigeria and South Africa for promoting its launch services. Antrix has also reached an understanding with the European space transportation company Arianespace under which small satellites from Europe would be scouted for launch by Indian space vehicles.

Antrix is hoping to achieve a breakthrough in launch services after the successful commissioning of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) MK III by the end of this decade. The three stage, 629-tonne GSLV-MK, will enable Antrix to bid for orbiting heavier class commercial communications satellites. But then there are many serious entry barriers that Antrix will have to overcome before it emerges as a leading player in the multi billion dollar global market for launching satellites.