ISRO’s commercial arm NSIL invites private firms to deliver 5 PSLVs

In a bid to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has invited Indian companies to manufacture and deliver five Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLVs). New Space India Limited (NSIL), the new commercial arm of the space agency, will be responsible for managing the entire process. 

 

“At this moment we have called for an EOI (expression of interest), and it is not open for any foreign firm. Isro has been considering this for a while, and we think this will boost the Make-in-India initiative of the government,” Isro chairman K Sivan was quoted as saying by TOI. 

 

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the third generation launch vehicle of India that can lift light payloads to ‘low earth orbits’ some 600 km in space. 

 

It is the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages. After its first successful launch in October 1994, PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle of India with 39 consecutively successful missions by June 2017. 

 

The NSIL, which was formed in March this year, has reportedly called a pre-bid meeting of potential parties on August 26. 

 

Meanwhile, India's second moon mission 'Chandrayaan-2' is expected to reach the moon's orbit on August 20 and land on the lunar surface on September 7, Sivan said.

       

The 3,850-kg Chandrayaan-2, a three-module spacecraft comprising orbiter, lander and rover, which was launched on July 22, would make a landing on the moon on September 7, the ISRO chief said.