In an interview to UNI here, ISRO chairman Dr K Kasturirangan said the details have not been worked out yet. An Intelsat team was expected to visit the ISRO headquarters here later this month to finalise the handing over of nine transponders leased to them at a cost of US $10 million a year for the next 10 years.

Dr Kasturirangan said any commercial offering of the transponders would be done only after an assurance that the country's socio-economic needs were met.

Referring to Insat 2E, he said the satellite was functioning normally and the spacecraft controllers at the Master Control Facility would apply brakes to the drift of the satellite within the next two days to place it in the final orbit position at 83 degrees East longitude (over the Indian Ocean).

He said the secondmeteorological payload on the satellite, the Charged Couple Device camera, had also been switched on in addition to the Very High Resolution Radiometer.

Asked about other user agencies leasing Insat 2E transponders from Intelsat, Dr Kasturirangan said the broad policy framework for ISRO leasing out satellites to user agencies within the country had been accepted and the modalities to implement them were being framed. Soon, ISRO too could offer transponders directly to user agencies.

He said the Insat satellites were comparable or much better than the other satellites such as Panamsat. He said the smooth launch of the satellite and the subsequent operations and manoeuvres carried out by the satellite controllers had enabled the country to gain confidence in building and operating heavy satellites weighing more than 2,500 kg (launch weight).

"I am very happy with the progress achieved both at the ground station level and in space," he added.