ISRO with private firm to launch rocket

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has begun work on forming a Joint Venture (JV) with private firms to build launch vehicles. The Joint Venture of ISRO and private firms aim to launch a rocket by 2020, said the agency’s Chairman A S Kiran Kumar. The ISRO also plans to increase the number of launches in the coming year, Kumar said.

“This (private involvement) is not just to meet our demand, but to also enable Indian firms to bag a significant pie of the global market, demand where is also only increasing. Recently we even saw a private firm integrate satellites at our facility, even that was a first of its kind initiative. Earlier private firms worked on supplying subsystems and other components,” Kumar was quoted as saying.