No insurance cover for Chandrayaan-1

MUMBAI: India’s most ambitious space programme, the Chandrayaan-1 project, which aims to send a spacecraft to moon, will lift off on October 22 without any insurance cover. The cost of India’s first unmanned mission to the moon is Rs 386 crore, including Rs 100 crore for establishing Indian Deep Space Network near Bangalore that would receive the signals from the satellites.

An Indian Space Research Organisation official told ET from Bangalore that as Chandrayaan-1 is a scientific project, it would not require any insurance cover. “We have not taken any cover for this project,” S Satish, spokesperson of ISRO said. The Made-in-India rocket bearing the lunar spacecraft will lift off as per schedule provided the weather is right. As per the plan, the 1.5-ton Chandrayaan spacecraft will take approximately eight days to travel about 240,000 miles before reaching its final orbit 60 miles above the surface of the moon. A crash landing of a lunar vehicle on the moon's surface is also planned.

According to insurance officials the cost of insuring space launches is extremely high due to high rate of failure. Also the risk almost entirely reinsured since Indian markets do not have the depth to cover launches on their own. Because of the high rate of failure the premium rates vary between 25-33% of the sum insured. “ISRO has a good track record of launches and can go for self insurance,” the official said.

“In satellite launches, the claims are either zero or 100% since the launch is either a success or a failure,” said Kamesh Goyal, country head of German insurer Allianz in India. Allianz's group company Spaceco based in France which specialises in satellite insurance and has participated in many space programes in the past. Insurance of space launches has been gaining importance because of the growing use of satellite communication in most businesses — ranging from stock exchanges, banks, television channels and telecom companies.

While the satellite launch agency is interested only in the successful launch of the satellite, companies have an interest in the satellites remaining during their expected lifespan. In India, New India has been issuing policies to cover satellite launches right from 1980 with INSAT-2E. However, ISRO has been insuring only those satellites it places using other's launch vehicles such as France's Ariane. It has not gone for a cover for Indian launches. India's last major launch which aimed to place Insat 4C failed in July ‘06 after the Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle developed a snag.

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