India has four fully built satellites ready for launch and shipment to the rocket port out of the 12 that were built during 2019-2020, said a senior official of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

India built 12 satellites during 2019-2020 out of which eight have been launched and four are ready for launch and transfer to the rocket port at Sriharikota, said P. Kunhikrishnan, Director, U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) part of ISRO.

He was speaking at a space sector conference 'Ushering the new era in Indian Space Sector' organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Antrix Corporation Limited and supported by NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).

Kunhikrihnan said out of the four satellites, GISAT-1 is ready for launch at the rocket port in Sriharikota.

The other three satellites - Microsat-2A, GSAT-12R and, RISAT-2BR2- are ready for shipment to the rocket port.

The launch of GISAT-1 satellite slated for March 5, 2020 was postponed due to technical reasons a day before the launch.

According to him, the challenge in making satellites is that all are different and not uniform.

Further unlike a rocket which has to perform its task of putting a satellite into orbit in about 20 minutes, a satellite has to work in a harsh environment for about 20 years.

Kunhikrishnan said the future plan for satellite manufacturing from 'build to print' to 'build to specs'.

He said India has 52 satellites up in the sky.

(IANS)