India to teach satellite tech to students from abroad

India has thrown open its satellite-building expertise to engineering graduates chosen from other countries.

Starting this year, and for three years, a total of 90 qualifying engineers from various countries will be taught to build and test three small satellites each year. They will be hosted in Bengaluru for two months each year and work in three annual batches of 30.

India is also ready to launch the small satellites built during the programme if they are good, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), K. Sivan, and other ISRO officials announced at an event in Vienna, where the global space community is meeting from June 18 to 21.

Indo-UN Small Satellites Programme

Indian start-ups and participants at the meeting shared the details of the training proposal, called the Indo-UN Small Satellites Programme (UNSSP).

The countries are marking the 50th year of the first UN Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space — called UNISPACE+50. Three such conferences held earlier recognised the potential of space and laid the guidelines for human activities and international cooperation related to outer space.

ISRO’s Bengaluru-based U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) — until recently known as ISAC — will train the overseas students in November and December this year through 2020, according to URSC Director M. Annadurai. In the last 40-odd years, URSC has rolled over 100 Indian satellites for various purposes out of its facilities.

Dr. Sivan said the capacity-building programme was India’s contribution to the world in response to a request that the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs had made to space-faring nations last year.