India space marekt opens further, eyes $120 mln/year business

"We have matured into the space technology and today we have established ourselves as a good service provider for building satellites and launching them," the chairman said.

The space agency is planning to launch five satellites this year, including one for ocean study by July, and at least two from Europe and Africa by the end of the year.

This April, India launched an Israeli-built military spy satellite, highlighting growing defence ties between New Delhi and Tel Aviv, which is now the second biggest arms supplier to India after Russia.

ISRO, with its low-cost services, is also targeting the United States to launch their spacecraft from its own space station under a commercial agreement, Nair said.

"We are having discussions with the U.S. government and we are trying to open up the market for launching their satellites," Nair said.

The space agency is planning it first manned mission to moon by 2015 following the successful mission of Chandrayaan-1 (moon vehicle), an unmanned cuboid spacecraft it sent to the moon to map the surface and look for precious metals last year.