Saturn Establishes a JV with
Ananth Technologies to build and launch Nationsat
satellites for the Indian Market
Saturn Satellite Networks Inc.
(Saturn), has signed an exclusive agreement
with India’s preeminent aerospace company, ANANTH
Technologies Ltd., to form an Indian Joint
Venture company (SaAn Satellite Networks India “SSNI”),
subject to all regulatory approvals being
received, to locally produce the Nationsat Satellite
developed by Saturn in ANANTH’s satellite
integration facilities in India. The Nationsat is based
on the Novawurks (a unit of Saturn) Hyper
Integrated Satlet (HISat), a GEO qualified satellite
platform that is modular and scalable to any
payload mission in any orbit or power requirements. With
the emergence of the newly established
Space Policy of India, SSNI will be one of the leading
satellite technology companies which will
develop commercial GEO satellites for Indian customers.
Since its inception in 1992, ANANTH
Technologies Ltd., founded by Dr. Subba Rao Pavuluri has
grown
to be a leading aerospace and satellite company in
India. ANANTH supports the growth of the Indian
economy through leveraging aerospace technologies. Its
offerings include the manufacture of
critical aerospace systems and high-value geospatial
services. ANANTH’s systems have been integral
in over 65 launch vehicles and 90 spacecrafts built in
India in close collaboration with the Indian
Space Research Organization.
Expertise, quality and focus have been the guiding
principles at
ANANTH, with its products and
services internationally certified (AS 9100C & ISO
9001:2008) and
recognized by their clients.
Tom Choi, the Executive Chairman of
AirspaceIX and Saturn remarked, “The Joint Venture
development with ANANTH Technologies accelerates the
Nationsat program of Saturn where our
goals are to deliver the most advanced, flexible and
cost optimized, small GEO satellite platform in
the world. By leveraging on the unique capabilities of
ANANTH Technologies in AIT and launchintegration, as
well as its leading R&D capabilities, we hope to make a
unique version of the
Nationsat which can launch on the Indian PSLV rocket, as
well as other global launch vehicles. We
look forward to serving the exciting and fast-growing
telecommunications market of India where we
believe significant demand exists for the foreseeable
future. The new Space Policy of India allows
room for commercial manufacturers and operators to serve
the significant and growing demand for
satellite communications in India. We look forward to
working with ANANTH to make the most cost
competitive and reliable satellite communications
systems. I am extremely thankful for Dr. Subba
Rao for agreeing to the Joint Venture with Saturn. We
both share the ambition of making affordable
space communications services a reality in India.”
Dr. Subba Rao, the Founder and MD
of ANANTH states “It is indeed a great privilege for us
to be
collaborating with Saturn Satellite Networks (SSN),
founded by the visionary and most decorated
leader of Satcom industry Mr. Tom Choi and his team of
veteran satellite technologists and business, globally.
While this partnership is a major milestone for ANANTH
in its own journey; we believe, the
Joint Venture will make most significant contributions
to India’s space sector in the coming days,
assisting country’s vision of an Atma Nirbhar Bharat
(self-reliant India), and further, to goals of
Make-in India, for India and
markets beyond.
ANANTH’s Satellite Assembly
Integration and Test (AIT) facility is the first of its
kind in the Indian
private sector. Complete satellite integration can be
done in this facility with the satellite having to
leave the facility only for launch. Additionally, this
facility has labs for manufacturing space qualified
subsystems”.
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