Satellite Launch PADS

India has two operational satellite launch pads located at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

The launch pads at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota are used exclusively for launch vehicles developed by ISRO.

However, India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), has launched 10 satellites of eight foreign countries (Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Luxembourg, Singapore, United Kingdom) during the last three years. These satellites belonging to foreign countries are launched by ISRO, on a commercial basis, under a contract between foreign countries and Antrix Corporation Ltd., a commercial arm of ISRO.

The revenue earned by Antrix Corporation Ltd. through launch of these satellites during last three financial years, year-wise is as follows:

Financial Year	Revenue Earned
2011-12	USD 1,000,000 Euro 540,000
2012-13	Euro 21,095,000
2013-14	----

        
The Government is considering setting up a new satellite launching pad, referred as Third Launch Pad, at Sriharikota. The Third Launch Pad is intended to support increased launch frequency, provide active redundancy to existing launch pads and to support launching requirements of advanced launch vehicles. The possible sites for the Third Launch Pad has been identified in Sriharikota taking into account the safety distances and maximal utilization of existing launch pad facilities.

The budgetary allocation made to Department of Space during the last three years are:                                                                                                                                  [`in Crore]

Financial Year	Amount Allocated		Actuals
	Budget Estimates	Revised Estimates
2011-12	6626.04	4432.30	3790.78
2012-13	6715.04	4880.03	4856.28
2013-14	6792.04	5172.04	5168.95

               The details of amount spent for R&D, under the Plan budget of Department of Space, which includes Development of Earth Observation Satellites, INSAT/GSAT system, Development of Launch Vehicles, Space Applications and Space Science & Planetary exploration during the last three years are:                                                                                                                                                  [ in Crore]

Financial Year	Amount Allocated (Plan)		Amount Spent
	Budget Estimates	Revised Estimates	Total
2011-12	5700.04	3432.03	2791.61
2012-13	5615.04	3800.03	3783.23
2013-14	5615.04	4000.04	3997.93

             
Major achievements of Department of Space, during the last three years (2011-14) include:

I. Launch of India’s first interplanetary mission to Mars, Mars Orbiter Mission.

II. Augmentation of Earth Observation capability with launch of indigenous Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-1) having day & night capability under all weather conditions; Indo-French Joint Missions viz. Satellite for ARgos and ALtika (SARAL) for oceanographic studies and Megha-Tropiques for tropical weather/climate studies; Resourcesat-2 for natural resources surveys; Advanced Weather satellite, INSAT-3D and science satellite YOUTHSAT.

III. Indigenous development and flight testing of cryogenic engine and stage on board GSLV-D5.

IV. Operational flights of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C16 to C22 & PSLV-C25).

V. Development and qualification of large solid state booster (S200) and higher thrust liquid stage (L110) stages for the next generation launch vehicle GSLV-Mk III.

VI. Augmentation of INSAT/GSAT system with Five communication satellites namely, GSAT-7, GSAT-8, GSAT-10, GSAT-12 and GSAT-14 adding 89 transponders in Ku, C, Extended C, S and UHF bands to the transponder capacity.

VII. Establishment of GPS Aided Geo-Augmented Navigation for safety of life applications for civil aviation sector.

VIII. Launch of first Indian Regional Navigation Satellite, IRNSS-1A.


This was stated by Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences, D/o Atomic Energy and D/o Space Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

Courtesy : pib.nic.in