India's first commercial satellite launch

April 23, 2007

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced India’s first commercial launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). It is carrying the Italian satellite AGILE which will gather information about the origins of the universe through imaging of distant celestial objects in the X-ray and Gamma ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

India joined the elite club of nations who have the capacity to deploy their space exploration resources for commercial use. Currently, only the United States, Russia, China, Ukraine and the European Space Agency have the capacity to deploy their space exploration resources for commercial use. These nations dominate the commercial satellite launch services segment which is estimated to be worth $2.5 billion a year.

The PSLV rocket only has the capability of carrying relatively lighter loads of under 1,000 kilograms, but ISRO hopes to increase payloads soon.