Antrix and Space Imaging extend their agreement

Venkatachari Jagannathan
03 February 2004

The agreement also extends to the data which will be generated by Cartosat-1, the country's first cartography satellite, once it is launched next year.

KR Sridhara Murthi, executive director, Antrix and Robert Dalal, CEO, Space Imaging, signed the agreement in Bangalore on January 27, 2004. ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair and the Board of Directors of Antrix were also present on the ocassion.

Speaking on the occasion, Nair said, "ISRO, Antrix and Space Imaging have worked as partners to fulfill India's vision of a global commercial earth-observation programme. The Indian remote sensing satellite system has emerged as one of the most high-profile programmes in the commercial imaging industry."

According to Dalal, 19 ground stations have been installed to access data being tranmitted by IRS-1C and IRS-1D satellites in the past 19 years.

"The continuation of our long-standing marketing relationship with Antrix is an important step in our business plan. Combined with its successful launch and Space Imaging's world wide user base, we are certain to gain maximum exposure for the imagery generated by Resourcesat-1 across many global markets," he said.

Resourcesat-1, is the most advanced remote sensing satellite built by ISRO so far and was launched in October 2003 by India's launch workhorse the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The satellite is expected to increase the export revenues from selling remote-sensing data by Rs 10 crore to Rs 30 crore per year. The global market for remote-sensing images is around $120 million.