S.K. Shivakumar, director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru, on Friday said the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has set an ambitious vision to launch about 10 satellites this year.

“Currently, we are launching four or five satellites every year. The idea is to expand our space programmes and set off launch of at least 10 satellites per year from 2015 onwards,” the space scientist said.

Dr. Shivakumar, one of the scientists behind the country’s successful ‘Mangalyan’ mission or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), was speaking on the topic “Indian satellites and success of MOM” at the National Science Day lecture at the All-India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH) here.

He said India had launched 72 satellites on its own from 1975 till date in 45 launch vehicle missions and two satellites had been launched with the support of foreign agencies. The launch of the 73rd satellite for navigation had been scheduled in March. Forty-one countries had taken ISRO’s help to launch their satellites, he explained.

Dr. Shivakumar said it was a big challenge to launch 10 satellites for various applications every year and added that infrastructure for supporting the vision was being created to boost the satellite production system.

About 2,500 people were presently working on the satellite production system at the ISRO’s satellite centre in Bengaluru and played a key role in realising the idea of enhancing the launch of more satellites.