Antrix Corporation Limited (

ISO 15919 ISO 15919 (Transliteration of Devanagari and related Indic scripts into Latin characters) is one of a series of international standards for romanization by the International Organization for Standardization. It was published in 2001 and uses dia ...

: ) is an Indian government-owned company under the administrative control of the

Department of Space The Department of Space is an Indian government department responsible for administration of the Indian space program. It manages several agencies and institutes related to space exploration and space technologies. The Indian space program und ...

. It was incorporated in September 1992, as a commercial and marketing arm of

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman of ...

by prompting, commercially delivering and marketing products and services emanating from ISRO. It provides major technical consultancy services and transfers technologies to industry.

History

Antrix Corporation was incorporated on 28 September 1992 as a

private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in Privately held company, "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a Public company, publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples ...

owned by the Indian government. Its objective is to promote the ISRO's products, services and technologies. The company is a

Public Sector Undertaking A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

(PSU), wholly owned by the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. It is administered by the

(DoS). It had dealings with

EADS Astrium Astrium was an aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) that provided civil and military space systems and services from 2006 to 2013. In 2012, Astrium had a turnover of €5.8 billion and 18 ...

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as ...

, Avanti Group,

WorldSpace 1worldspace, known for most of its existence simply as WorldSpace, is a defunct satellite radio network that in its heyday provided service to over 170,000 subscribers in eastern, southern and northern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia w ...

, Inmarsat,

SES World Skies SES World Skies was a short lived company formed as a result of the merger between the two SES subsidiaries, ''SES Americom'' and ''SES New Skies''. The company was merged into its parent company, SES S.A. in 2011. History SES Americom SE ...

Measat MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd, formerly Binariang Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd is a Malaysian communications satellite operator, which owns and operates the MEASAT (Malaysia East Asia Satellite) and AFRICASAT spacecraft. The company provides s ...

Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, commonly known as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate and one of the four major telcos operating in the country. The company is the largest mobile network operator in Singapore with ...

and other space institutions in Europe, Middle East and South East Asia. It was awarded ' Miniratna Category-I' status by the government in 2008.

Achievements

''Original Article :

List of PSLV launches This is a list of launches made by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rockets. Notable missions PSLV flight D1 This was the first developmental flight of the PSLV-D1. The IRS-1E satellit ...

'' *Successful launch of W2M satellite for Eutelsat. * Successful supply of reliable satellite systems and sub-systems. Some of ''Antrixs better known customers are

Hughes Hughes may refer to: People * Hughes (surname) * Hughes (given name) Places Antarctica * Hughes Range (Antarctica), Ross Dependency * Mount Hughes, Oates Land * Hughes Basin, Oates Land * Hughes Bay, Graham Land * Hughes Bluff, Victoria ...

, Matra Marconi,

World Space In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

etc. * Successful Commercial Satellite Launches of SPOT 687 (France), Pathfinder & Dove (U.S),

Tecsar TecSAR-1, also known as TechSAR, Polaris and Ofeq-8, is an Israeli reconnaissance satellite, equipped with a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) developed by Elta Systems. It was successfully launched at 03:45 UTC on 21 January 2008, by PSLV C- ...

(Israel) Kitsat (

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republi ...

), Tubsat (

DLR DLR may refer to: Companies and organizations * , the first German airline * , a German radio network * or DLR Kultur, a German radio station * German Aerospace Center () * DLR Group, a U.S. engineering and design firm Mathematics and technolo ...

– Germany), BIRD (DLR – Germany),

PROBA PROBA is minisatellite technology demonstration mission in ESA's General Study Program with the objective to address issues of on-board operational autonomy of a generic platform. PROBA (Project for On-Board Autonomy), renamed PROBA-1, is a Belgia ...

(Verhaert,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

) aboard the ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (

PSLV The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites ...

). * Execution of many

IOT The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...

/ TTC support services to International Space Agencies. Some of the customers used ''Antrix'' services are

PanAmSat The former PanAmSat Corporation founded in 1984 by Reynold (Rene) Anselmo, was a satellite service provider headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. It operated a fleet of communications satellites used by the entertainment indu ...

, GE,

Americom SES Americom was a major commercial satellite operator of North American geosynchronous satellites based in the United States. The company started as RCA Americom in 1975 before being bought by General Electric in 1986 and then later acquired by ...

, AFRISAT etc.

Business agreement

On 29 January 2014, Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), signed Launch Services Agreement with DMC International Imaging (DMCii), the wholly owned subsidiary of

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space. The company began o ...

(SSTL), United Kingdom (UK), for launch of three DMC-3 Earth Observation Satellites being built by SSTL, on-board ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). On 5 February 2014, Antrix signed another Launch Services Agreement with

ST Electronics Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd, doing business as ST Engineering, is a Singaporean multinational technology and engineering group in the aerospace, smart city as well as defence and public security sectors. Headquartered in Singapore, ...

(Satcom & Sensor Systems) Pte Ltd, Singapore, for launch of

TeLEOS-1 TeLEOS-1 is Singapore's first commercial earth observation satellite launched on a PSLV-C29 vehicle of ISRO from SDSC (Satish Dhawan Space Center) at Sriharikota on 16 December 2015 along with other five satellites developed in Singapore. The sate ...

Earth Observation Satellite, on-board PSLV. These launches are planned during end 2014 to end 2015. On 29 September 2014, Canada announced that it has decided to give the contract of the July 2015 launch of its M3M (

Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Micro-Satellite The Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Microsatellite (M3MSat) is a tele-detection satellite developed by the Canadian Space Agency and launched in 2016. Its mission is to demonstrate and test the technology to assess the utility of having in space ...

) communications satellite to Antrix during the inauguration of the

International Astronautical Congress Every year, the International Astronautical Federation with the support of the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), holds the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) which is hosted b ...

at Toronto.

Satellite launches

ISRO has launched 343 foreign satellites for 36 different countries. All satellites were launched using the ISRO's

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites ...

(PSLV)

expendable launch system An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are either destroyed during reentry or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of several rocket s ...

. Between 2013 and 2015, India launched 28 foreign satellites for 13 different countries earning a total revenue of US$101 million. Antrix launched 239 satellites between 2016 and 2019 earning a total revenue of .

Controversies

S-band spectrum scam

In January 2005, Antrix Corporation signed an agreement with Devas Multimedia (a private company formed by former ISRO employees and Venture Capitalists from USA) for lease of

S band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the conventiona ...

transponders on two ISRO satellites (GSAT 6 and GSAT 6A) for a price of , a huge amount lower than market price, to be paid over a period of 12 years. Devas shares were sold at a premium of , taking the accumulated share premium to , thus getting a high profit. In July 2008, Devas offloaded 17% of its stake to German company

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom w ...

for US$75 million, and by 2010 had 17 investors, including former ISRO scientists. In late 2009, some ISRO insiders exposed information about the Devas-Antrix deal, and the ensuing investigations resulted in the deal being annulled.

G. Madhavan Nair G. Madhavan Nair (born 31 October 1943) is an Indian space scientist and a former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, and Secretary to the Department of Space, Government of India. He has also been the Chairman of the Space ...

(ISRO Chairperson when the agreement was signed) was barred from holding any post under the Department of Space. Some former scientists were found guilty of "acts of commission" or "acts of omission". Devas and Deutsche Telekom demanded US$2 billion and US$1 billion, respectively, in damages. The

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governme ...

concluded investigations into the Antrix-Devas scam and registered a case against the accused in the Antrix-Devas deal under Section 120-B, besides Section 420 of

IPC IPC may refer to: Computing * Infrastructure protection centre or information security operations center * Instructions per cycle or instructions per clock, an aspect of central-processing performance * Inter-process communication, the sharin ...

and Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988 on 18 March 2015 against the then executive director, Antrix Corporation Limited, Bengaluru; two officials of USA-based company; Bengaluru based private multi media company and other unknown officials of

Antrix Antrix Corporation Limited (ISO 15919: ) is an Indian government-owned company under the administrative control of the Department of Space. It was incorporated in September 1992, as a commercial and marketing arm of ISRO by prompting, commerci ...

Corporation Limited /ISRO/Department of Space.Newsroom24x7
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References

External links

* {{authority control Space programme of India Commercial launch service providers Government-owned companies of India Companies based in Bangalore Indian Space Research Organisation Indian companies established in 1992 1992 establishments in Karnataka mr:अंतरिक्ष