ISRO earns ₹1,100 crore in five years from foreign launches

The organisation successfully launched 177 foreign satellites from 19 countries

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had earned approximately ₹1,100 crore in the last five years from the launch of foreign satellites, Minister for Space Jitendra Singh, told Rajya Sabha on Thursday in response to a query.

In the last five years, January 2018 - November 2022 ISRO, via its commercial arms, successfully launched 177 foreign satellites from 19 countries — Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Republic ofKorea, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

In July, Mr. Singh had said that ISRO had earned — over its lifetime — $223 million (~ ₹1,830 crore) from launching foreign satellite aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV)

The latest figures include revenue from PSLV and launches aboard the Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-MkIII, now renamed as LVM-3) launchers under commercial agreements. These flights earned the organisation $94 million and €46 million (that in current Rupee values add up to around ₹1,100 crore), the Minister said in a written reply.

Earliert this year, the LVM3, launched 36 OneWeb satellites in a single mission and for the first time an Indian company -- Skyroot Aerospace –  sent Vikram S, a 545-kg rocket privately-developed rocket into space on November 18, 2022 as part of a mission called ‘Prarambh.’