Both the communication satellite GSAT-5P and the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV-F06 that was to have put the satellite into orbit on Saturday from Sriharikota were not insured. The GSLV-F06 cost the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Rs.175 crore and GSAT-5P Rs.150 crore.
The GSLV-F06 went up in smoke because the command from its electronic brain to its first stage did not go home. This happened because four connectors, which stitch up the wires conveying the signal, prised open and the wires got snapped.
The GSLV-D3, which failed on April 15, 2010, also was not insured. It was to have put into orbit the communication satellite GSAT-4, which was not insured either.
In both April and December, the launch vehicles and the satellites were built by ISRO.
“The ISRO normally does not insure its own satellite when it is launched by its own rocket,” said spokesman S. Satish. The ISRO is a Government of India organisation, and even if it were to insure its own rockets and satellites, “the money will be going from one hand to another” in the case of a failure, he said. “For, ISRO would insure its rockets or satellites only with insurance companies owned by the Government of India.”
However, an India-built satellite being put into orbit by a foreign launcher would be insured, Mr. Satish said. Thus, the Indian National Satellites, INSAT-2A, 2B, 2C, 2D and 2E and INSAT-3A, 3B, 3C and 3E and INSAT-4A and 4B, which were built by the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, and put into orbit by the Ariane vehicle of Arianespace from French Guiana were all insured.
Similarly, the INSAT-1A, 1B and 1D, which were put into orbit respectively by the Delta rocket, the space shuttle and the Delta vehicle of the U.S. were insured. Ford Aerospace built these satellites for India.
The ISRO paid Arianespace and Ford Aerospace for deploying these communication satellites.
K.R. Sridhara Murthi, former Managing Director, Antrix Corporation, the marketing wing of the Department of Space, said ISRO insured its communication satellites that were put into orbit by a foreign launcher because they were commercial satellites. The insurance cost depended on the maturity of the launch vehicle, that was, its track record. “If you have a launch vehicle which has done at least five or six successful launches, then the insurance companies will be ready to insure [the satellite]. Otherwise, the insurance cost will form a significant part of the satellite cost itself,” Mr. Murthi said.
The ISRO did not insure the Indian Remote-sensing Satellites (IRS) that were put into orbit by the Russian rockets because these satellites were semi-commercial and most of the users of their data were government agencies. Russia charged a fee from ISRO for deploying these remote-sensing satellites, said Mr. Murthi, who is now Senior Expert, Office of the Adviser to the Prime Minister, Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, New Delhi.
