The Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE) at Mhow is planning to launch a small student satellite with communication payload to empower its officers with deep understanding of space technology, especially on advance satellite communication.

The Army has issued a ‘request for information’ (RFI) from vendors for launching the satellite and establishment of earth station at MCTE, the training institute of Corps of Signals in Mhow.

According to the RFI, "the project shall include satellite link planning, its design, communication payload design, fabrication, assembly and testing of electrical and mechanical systems of a satellite". It will also include establishment and operation of earth station, accessing, monitoring and controlling satellite, etc. to have a pool of trained manpower, the RFI elaborated.

The tender has listed out specific requirements that a vendor has to fulfill for the proposed satellite . Among them are to provide experts to guide and supervise MCTE students for satellite bus designing, development and fabrication. The vendor will also be required to provide all necessary components and materials for creating satellite bus, RFI pointed out.

The satellite’s life has to be one year and would be put into the orbit through ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The testing facility for satellite bus, payload, earth segment systems and other equipment/systems should preferably be created at MCTE, stated the RFI. If it is not feasible, the infrastructure at vendor’s location can be utilised for testing all systems, once they are designed and fabricated by students in MCTE, the Army said.

The vendor, insists the RFI, should be a registered company in India. It should have a Registered Office, Operations and Maintenance support team based in the country. The original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of the proposed product and services must also have their registered office, operations, maintenance and repair infrastructure in India.

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