On the heels of the successful launch of its communication satellite GSAT-8, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up to launch the next communication satellite GSAT-12 in the second week of July.

Announcing this at a news conference here on Wednesday, ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said the satellite would be launched from Sriharikota on a PSLV C-17 vehicle.

It would be moved from Bangalore to Sriharikota on Thursday for conducting various pre-launch tests. The assembling of the launch vehicle had also commenced.

GSAT-12, built at a cost of Rs.148 crore, has 12 transponders in an extended C-Band and will help users in the field of tele-medicine, tele-education, social services, etc. The launch vehicle was expected to cost about Rs.100 crore.

Dr. Radhakrishnan said the services of GSAT-8 satellite, launched on May 21, was expected to be available for users by June-end. In-orbit tests of transponders of the satellite would be held for three weeks, from Thursday. The satellite had been put on 55 degree east of geo-station orbit on Wednesday. Users of some of the decommissioned satellites would be moved to this, he said.

Referring to the recommendations made by a committee which looked into the failure of GSLV in December 2010 and another committee that examined the entire GSLV programme, Dr. Radhakrishnan said ISRO had now decided to "put all the focus" on developing indigenous cryogenic engines that powered Mark-II launch vehicles.

He said there were no major problems with respect to the design.

However, discussions had started with Russia regarding finetuning of the engine procured from them.

India to launch 12 foreign satellites
Bangalore, India (SPX) Jun 03, 2011 - India has bagged multi-million dollar contracts to launch 12 foreign satellites in the lower orbit from its spaceport over the next two years, a top space agency official said Wednesday.

"Through our commercial arm Antrix Corporation, we have received orders from Canada, Indonesia, Germany and other European countries to launch a dozen satellites in the sun-synchronous orbit during the next two years," state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters here.

Of the 12 satellites, four are from Canada, two each from Indonesia and Germany and one from Luxembourg. The remaining three spacecraft are from universities in Europe.

"We have an order from Germany to launch an 800-kg dedicated satellite (N-Map) for environmental studies. The other satellites, weighing between 80-100 kg will be launched on board our polar satellite launch vehicles (PSLVs) as additional payloads along with Indian communications or remote-sensing satellites," an Antrix official said.

Antrix is also in negotiations with France to launch a remote sensing satellite (EnMAP) in the lower orbit.

India has already launched a total of 26 foreign satellites during the past decade for various countries, including Germany, Italy, Israel, Korea and Singapore.