[SatNews] The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has lined up the launch of an image capturing satellite for France in 2012.

The news was disseminated by Parivakkam Subramaniam Veeraraghavan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), a unit of ISRO. “Because of our cost effective technology, many developed nations, including France and the U.S., are willing to launch their satellites with our system. Many smaller and mini satellite launching programs on commercial basis are in offing,” Veeraraghavan said. Recently, the ISRO successfully placed Singapore's first experimental satellite in space. India has, so far, launched 27 foreign satellites and 60 India-made satellites. Currently, it costs $25,000 per kg to launch a satellite. The satellites can weigh 500 to 5,000 kg. Sometimes mini-satellites weighing 15-20 kg are bundled with the rocket and are placed in desired orbits. However, profit realization from a satellite launch is currently lower due to the high cost of fuel and one-time use of the rockets. Veeraraghvan said the ISRO is working on a project to develop reusable satellite launcher. “The reusable spacecraft would minimize the launch= cost by 90 percent. We have set 2030 as deadline to reach this goal,” he said. Over the next five years, ISRO has plans to launch one ASTROSAT, which is a low cost version of Hubble Telescope, one GPS navigation satellite, plus a special satellite that can provide Internet services.

The French satellite SPOT (Satellite Pour l'observation de la Terre) is a high-resolution, optical imaging, Earth observation satellite system. Currently, SPOT 5 is working in space and is expected to be withdrawn by the end of 2013.