Astrium and the Indian Space Research Organization announced their collaboration at the Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad
Tal Inbar, Hyderabad
Astrium, a division of the European aerospace company, announced on Tuesday that the Indian space agency will assemble satellites for some of the company's customers as part of a new collaboration.
The Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organization will build two satellites for the French Eutelsat company to be launched by Astrium in the last quarter of 2008 and another for the British Avanti company for a 2009 launch.
These satellites will be integrated, assembled, and tested in Bangalore. Astrium's CEO, François Oko, told reporters as part of the Astronautics Congress taking place these days in Hyderabad in southern India.
Astrium's regional marketing manager Gisilan de la Seyate said that the two contracts signed with ISRO's marketing arm, known as Antrix, are worth many tens of millions of dollars, but declined to specify the exact amount.
The company will also market India's low-cost launch platforms to customers in Europe and offer India's observation satellite services to its customers in the US, Oko says.
India, which has designed and built communications, weather and mapping satellites for itself, is trying to reap the commercial benefits from the 40-year-old space program. Astrium designed and manufactures the Ariane launchers, the Columbus Laboratory and the ATV cargo spacecraft for the International Space Station as well as ballistic missiles for France. It also manufactures satellite systems.
