Indian Space Research Organisation chairman Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan said the agency was experimenting with satellite navigation systems modelled on those used in Europe and the United States.

"We are trying to work with the Airports Authority of India on satellite navigation. What we will try to do is to conceptualise," he told AFP.

"Our job will be mostly to develop software, install a certain type of hardware and a wide-area access for communicating with an Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) and then see how it can be used for navigation."

India is also developing a satellite network devoted exclusively to education called EDUSAT.

"Here we had a discussison with the human resource development ministry and now we are building a satellite" to help with teacher training at the primary and university levels in remote regions.

The agency is also seeking a foothold in tele-medicine, Kasturirangan said.

"The idea is to bring the best of medical help from the city to rural areas. If everything goes well and there is a justification for a full-fledged satellite then we may go for a health satellite," he said.

Established in 1969, the ISRO launched its first satellite, Aryabhata, on April 19, 1975.

Kasturirangan, ISRO chief since 1994, said the agency hoped to establish a satellite-based information system for communication in disaster management.

"ISRO is working with various government departments... to develop a synergy between communications and remote sensing," he said.

The first operational Indian remote sensing satellite was launched in 1988 while the communications satellite INSAT took off in 1982, the first of six such satellites sent into orbit.

Satellites devoted to astronomy and to study the physical characteristics of clouds are also on the drawing board.

Kasturirangan denied that an under-construction Technology Experiment Satellite known as Cartosat-2 was a cover for developing a spy satellite.

"We have declared the Technology Experiment Satellite as a one-meter satellite. We are evaluating the technology but it has not been put to operational use.

"When one talks about a one-meter satellite everybody says it is a spy satellite. These are all misconceptions," he argued.

The agency was this week to review final preparations for a test flight of its geosynchronous launch vehicle, he said, which can carry a communication satellite weighing up to 2,000 kilogrammes (4,400 pounds).

Current Indian polar satellite launch vehicles can blast off carrying 1,000 to 1,200-kilogramme units.

"A final review of all the preparations will be held sometime on May 1 or May 2," Kasturirangan said.

"We should have a launch if not in the first week maybe by the second or third week of May."

SPACE.WIRE