Le Bourget - June 17th 2005 - In presence of Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of ISRO, K R Sridhara Murthi, Executive Director of Antrix Corporation Limited and Antone Bouvier, chairman of EADS Astrium have signed today a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). Antrix Corporation Limited and EADS Astrium will jointly address the commercial market for communications satellites with payload power below 4 Kw and a launch mass in the range of 2 to 3 tons.

Satellites in this segment represent a sizable and stable part of the market. The aim of this cooperation is to optimize the INSAT 2K and 3K Platforms along with EADS Astrium Payloads.

The Antrix EADS Astrium alliance will have all the ingredients to be successful on this market, offering mature, flexible and cost effective solution to operator's requests.

ANTRIX is the commercial arm of the Indian Department of Space, the technical unit of which is the Indian Space Research Organiastion (ISRO) which has had extensive experience of designing developing and manufacturing Indian satellite systems including the INSAT and IRS series.

ISRO objective has been to develop space technology and its application to various national tasks. Since 1969, when it was set up, ISRO has established space systems like the INSAT for telecommunication, television broadcasting and meteorological services, and the Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS) for resources monitoring and management. ISRO has also developed the satellite launch vehicles PSLV and GSLV to place these satellites in the required orbits.

EADS Astrium is Europe's leading satellite system specialist. Its activities cover complete civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation systems, science and navigation programmes, and all spacecraft avionics and equipment.

EADS Astrium, wholly owned subsidiary of EADS SPACE, which is dedicated to providing civil and defense space systems. In 2004 EADS SPACE had a turnover of Euro 2.6 billion and 11,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defense and related services. In 2004, EADS generated revenues of Euro31.8 billion and employed a workforce of more than 110,000.