The so-called "space club" is a closed circle. Its members-the US, the UK, Russia, China, France, Germany and Japan-jealously guard their turf, and a "No Vacancy" sign hangs permanently outside its barred doors. But on December 20 last year, club members got a rude shock. An interloper gatecrashed into their hallowed precincts and announced, without so much as a by your leave, that it was joining the party.

That day, Antrix Corporation, the marketing arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), signed a joint venture agreement with MEASAT Global Bhd of Malaysia "to pool their capabilities to develop a satellite neighbourhood for millions of broadcasting and telecommunications customers across the Asia-Pacific region". Hidden somewhere in the fine print was a clause under which ISRO will design and build a two-tonne communications satellite for MEASAT and launch it from Sriharikota. The D-Day: Sometime in q1 of 2007. It was, to paraphrase Neil Armstrong, a small step for Antrix, but a giant leap for India. Why? In the past ISRO has designed, built and launched education and research satellites in the 100-300-kg payload range. But this is its first contract for a "big" commercial satellite.

A paradox of the $100-billion-a-year (Rs 4,40,000 crore) space business is that while rocket and satellite launches provide dramatic television footage and grab the headlines, the real moolah-up to 70 per cent by some estimates-lies in services, particularly direct-to-home (DTH) television, informs K.R. Sridhara Murthi, Executive Director, Antrix. The 50:50 joint venture will pool capacities from the INSAT and MEASAT satellites and provide C-band services to over 70 per cent of the world's population and DTH quality Ku-band satellite services to millions of households in South Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Indo-China and Australia. Rupert Murdoch and Subhash Chandra, please take note...

This is not Antrix's first foray into the global market for space products. Space Imaging, a us company, markets ISRO's remote sensing data to its clients all over the world, informs G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman of ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space, Government of India. Antrix, which claims a 15-20 per cent share of this market, finished 2003-04 with a turnover of Rs 300 crore. Exports accounted for 75 per cent of this. It hopes to end this fiscal with a topline of Rs 900 crore, a growth of 200 per cent. And things are expected to improve even further after the MEASAT JV becomes operational.

When that happens, India Inc. too can expect to rake in big bucks from this sector. Already, private and public sector biggies like Godrej & Boyce, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) and Bharat Electronics (BEL), and smaller specialty companies like Hyderabad-based MTAR and Chennai-based Valeth High Tech Composites play critical roles in India's space programme. Godrej, which developed and produced the liquid propulsion engines, ground station and on-board antennae for the country's space programme, did business worth about Rs 14 crore last year with the ISRO-Antrix combine. This miniscule figure belies the complex skills-precision machining, welding of unlike materials and super alloys, and top-of-the-line research and development-required to service these orders. L&T declined to speak to BT on the subject. The Rs 6-crore Valeth makes high purity, high temperature resistant silica fabrics and is the country's only manufacturer of this material, which has a melting point of 1,700 degrees Celsius. Peter Valeth, MD of the company, says ISRO accounts for about 50 per cent of his turnover. He is eyeing regular civilian applications for his products. "Silica, being highly heat resistant, can be used in continuous process industries like power and fertiliser, as furnace insulators and in firefighting," says Valeth. Dental fillings made from composite materials, lightweight polyurethane feet (better known as the Jaipur Foot) and titanium alloy medical implants are some of the other civilian applications of space technology that can become money spinners in future. The bulk of ISRO contracts, however, goes to public sector companies like HAL and BEL. Ashok Nayak, gm of the former's aerospace division, estimated that "HAL does Rs 300-400 crore worth business with ISRO". BEL expects Rs 200-crore worth orders over the next 4-5 years.

On the job: Scientists working on the Edusat at ISRO, Bangalore

These figures-small and inconsequential in the context of the billions of dollars floating around in the space sector-will doubtless get a boost when India's ambitious Rs 380-crore moon mission, Chandrayan, blasts off in 2008. Already, ISRO and Antrix have received enquiries from foreign companies and agencies that want to place their instruments on board the 525-kg satellite. The demonstrator effect of the project, coupled with a crucial 30 per cent cost advantage that ISRO enjoys over its Western counterparts, is expected to win India more contracts-with lucrative spin-offs for India Inc.

But before that happens, the government-as well as ISRO and Antrix-will have to withstand considerable pressure from the Big Boys who are loathe to allow newcomers to settle into their oligopolistic club. Of course, the arm-twisting will be disguised as an altruistic concern for world peace and missile proliferation. "Government controls in vogue in the us come in the way of market access, particularly when offering launch services," rues Antrix's Murthi.

But India has, in the past, proved itself more than adept at beating sanctions (by whatever names called). Perhaps that is what gives ISRO, Antrix and India Inc. the confidence to aim, literally, for several pies across the skies.

-additional reporting by Priyanka Sangani in Mumbai, E. Kumar Sharma in
Hyderabad and Nitya Varadarajan in Chennai