India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its commercial arm, Antrix, have had a tough few years with legal actions, and allegations of fraud and malpractice which resulted in criminal convictions for some key individuals.

Those problems seem now to be in the past.

ISRO saw overall revenues last year (financial year 2018-2019) of some $255 million. ISRO says that for 2020 that revenue could rise to more than $300 million, helped by a growing success of rocket-building and launching and never-ending growth in demand for satellite communications.

Antrix Corporation Chairman and MD Director Rakesh Sasibhushan said the revenue will be shared between the corporation and New Space India Limited, a new commercial arm of ISRO. It was established in March 2019 for collaborating with the private sector in the manufacture of launch vehicles.

ISRO says that it has foreign launch contracts in place for US and Singapore-based businesses.

Such is the demand that ISRO is building a third launch pad near in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu for smaller satellites. This need for additional launch pads has arisen as a result of the increase in the number of satellite launches from India. ISRO has conducted 13 launches from its two launch pads since 2018.

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