India and France to build satellite constellation
August 27, 2019
By Chris Forrester
The space agencies of India and France have signed an agreement to develop a constellation of broadband satellites.
The constellation will carry telecommunications, radar, and optical remote-sensing instruments, which are supposed to be the world’s first space-based system that can track ships continuously.
The agreement was signed by France’s CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Kailasavadivoo Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Studies on this project have been underway since President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to India in March 2018.