Of the 1200 odd satellites that are currently orbiting the Earth, over 50 percent of them are communications satellites. Of the 1200 odd satellites that are currently orbiting the Earth, over 50 percent of them are communications satellites.

The Space Applications Centre (SAC), an important arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that started payload development with India’s first experimental communication satellite Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment (APPLE) in 1981, will see a five-fold increase in it’s ability to build communication satellites at Ahmedabad.

This new facility which is coming up on 60 acres in Bopal locality of the city, will cater to ISRO’s demand for building newer and more sophisticated communications satellites.

“Every other day we see some new television channel being launched. There is a huge demand for communications satellites across the world and in order to cater to this demand we are building a new communication satellite production facility on a 60 acre campus in Bopal which will be able to simultaneously integrate 10-payloads at a time,” said the director of SAC, Tapan Misra, while talking to The Indian Express.

Of the 1200 odd satellites that are currently orbiting the Earth, over 50 percent of them are communications satellites. This new communication laboratory at Bopal will be able to handle five-time more payloads in comparison it’s existing facility at Jodhpur Tekra, which can currently handle only two payloads at a time.

SAC which started payload development activity with India’s first experimental communication satellite, APPLE, has so far indigenously designed and developed at least 29 communication satellites which includes, INSAT series of satellites, GSAT series and IRNSS series. GSAT-15 was the latest of communication satellite to be integrated at SAC and launched by ISRO in November 2015.

Over 250 scientists working at this communication satellite laboratory at SAC are currently working on important communication satellites like GSAT-18, GSAT-11 and seventh satellite of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). “If everything goes as per plans, then this new facility at Bopal should be up and running by April 2016,” Misra added.

Apart from the communication laboratory, the new campus will also house a fabrication unit and a vendor complex. “The vendor complex has been created mostly for entry-level entrepreneurs who want to work with ISRO. About 20 vendors can work simultaneously at this complex. They can bring in their machinery and their manpower and work for us within our campus,” the director said adding that such a vendor complex will help cut costs for SAC which currently operates with 30-odd private vendors.

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