ISRO launched 177 foreign satellites from 19 nations in 5 years, House told

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has successfully launched 177 foreign satellites from 19 countries over the last five years, minister of state (independent charge) space, science and technology Dr Jitendra Singh told parliament on Thursday.

Singh said between January 2018 and November 2022, Isro via its commercial arms had successfully launched 177 foreign satellites from 19 countries — France, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Finland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

The minister also said in response to a query that Isro had earned nearly ₹1,100 crore in the same period from the launch of foreign satellites.

In an official statement issued in July this year, Isro said the space body had, from all its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) missions, earned around ₹1,850 crore from launching foreign satellites.

Since then, Isro has also successfully completed launches of the Launch Vehicle Mark-III, dubbed as the Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III under commercial agreements and PSLV, earning nearly ₹1,100 crore.

The space organisation in its LVM3 mission also launched 36 OneWeb satellites in a single mission. Besides, for the first time an Indian company, Skyroot Aerospace, sent Vikram S—a 545-kg rocket privately developed rocket into space on November 18, this year as part of a mission called “Prarambh”, the minister said.