Susmita and Amaresh have much more than Mars on their minds

Susmita Mohanty and Amaresh Kollipara have much more than Mars on their
minds. Together they created Earth2Orbit (E2O) which is described as
India’s first private space start-up. It is headquartered in Mumbai
with offices in Bangalore, San Francisco and Vienna where Dr. Barbara
Imhof oversees E2O's European operations. The team wants to start an
office in Tokyo too.

Placing small satellites in orbit appears to be E2O's primary mission -
at least that is how I perceive E2O after reading the company brief
where Section 2.1 - "International Launch Brokering" - clearly states
that "E2O serves as an 'integrated business window' to ISRO’s marketing
arm, ANTRIX and offers international clients primary and secondary
launches onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The
advantage the PSLV has over its competitors includes greater launch
frequency and competitive pricing. ANTRIX also offers discounted
pricing for universities and non-commercial missions. "

Satellites with a full launch weight well under 2000 kg are best suited
to ride aboard the PSLV which is why India is developing and promoting
its GSLV program to ultimately lift larger satellites into orbit. An enhanced PSLV-XL version which was used to launch ISRO's 1400kg-plus GSAT-12 satellite last month also took ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 aloft on its lunar mission.

"We offer satellite clients turnkey services that include: launch
procurement, launch quote negotiations with ANTRIX, contract
management, satellite testing, integration, logistics management,
launch and post-launch mission support. We also offer them ancillary
launch hardware such as orbital deployers (also known as separation
mechanisms or satellite dispensers)" the E2O brief added.

Here you see that E2O is much more than some sort of PSLV gatekeeper
and it is positioning itself to be a full service provider to "New
Space" sector companies. And this raises another critical question as
well.

Would Mohanty be a strong candidate to take charge of ISRO?

I am inclined to think so. At least she should be given her turn at the
helm. Take a moment to read her recent Gateway House commentary - "A
Tale of Two Rockets" - which she penned earlier this year and you can
perhaps understand how I formulated my viewpoint in this instance.

See

http://www.gatewayhouse.in/publication/gateway-house/features/tale-two-
rockets

Would the new launch pad at SHAR have gone much more quickly if she was
running the show? Would ISRO be further down the road in general? These
and other questions cannot go unmentioned.

"Theoretically, ISRO is capable of building and launching five to six
PSLVs per year. But for the past few years, it has barely launched two
a year. This is most likely because our national priorities precede any
commercial intent. While this may seem appropriate, commercial intent
can be pursued in parallel and does not have displace priority
missions. As a nation, we have an opportunity to articulate and pursue
commercial dominance of the international launch market as part of the
mission of our space programme" she wrote.

Consider carefully the final two recommendations that she made - out of
a total of 11.

"(10) Bet on young entrepreneurs and new companies

"As it did with IT, the Indian government needs to create a business
environment to nurture a new breed of entrepreneurs that will go out
and privatize the space sector and compete in the international market.
Breakthrough innovation almost always comes from new entrants, rather
than existing corporations that are weighed down by entrenched business
models and legacy cost structures.

"(11) Think in 50 to 100 year cycles, not in 5 to 10 year cycles."

"India needs vision as much as it needs an outward-looking, even
aggressive, space policy. India needs to think long term while creating
a commercial roadmap for space," she concluded.

There is no doubt that she sees the big picture and she has a talented
and yet tiny team to assist her besides. Kollipara with his MBA from
Columbia University is keen and competent to run the numbers. He is a
regular at the annual "Space Investment Summit" and compliments Mohanty
well. We caught up with him just after he spoke at the "New Space 2011"
conference.

He admitted that nobody from E2O was attending the 25th Annual Small
Satellite Conference in Utah this week. An awkward situation no doubt
given that this event is held each year at Utah State University and
attracts hundreds of researchers as well as staff members from
government agencies both military and civilian and aspiring New Space
entrepeneurs.

"No. We usually attend every year...but this year we have some
interesting projects that require us to engage in client discussions
this week" said Kollipara who serves as E2O's San Francisco-based CEO -
USA while Mohanty serves as CEO - India.

I would estimate that half the crowd in Utah this week would welcome a
chance to talk to E2O about how best to obtain a ticket to ride aboard
the PSLV.

"ISRO will have to make it attractive for private companies to enter
the satellite manufacturing and launch business. Only then can we hope
to bring down the launch prices further as has been demonstrated by the
new California based company SpaceX. The Obama administration has
radically reformed their national space policy letting private
companies like SpaceX take the lead in developing low-cost, reliable,
and efficient space transportation options for the American space
programme" a recent E2O memo stated. "This will allow American
launchers to compete with the low cost launchers from Russia, India and
China. India needs to get its act together and consider significant
changes to its space policy if it wants to create a thriving space
industry. And by ‘industry’, we mean not just companies that supply
parts to ISRO, but also companies that can go out and capture a chunk
of the 160 billion dollar international market."

E2O has been pursuing its objectives since 2008 and the time has come
for E2O to initiate a more aggressive campaign.