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Since Chandrayaan-3, what has India’s space programme been up to? | Explained
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A review of activities in the Indian space programme, including highlights from the last year, mission roadmaps, Gaganyaan and NGLV, and private missions
ISRO’s PSLV-C58 lifts off on January 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
After a busy 2023, things have been quiet at Sriharikota, India’s spaceport. But silence at the spaceport does not imply that India’s space programme itself has been dormant. A lot has been happening since the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully landed the lander of its Chandrayaan 3 mission, Vikram, on the surface of the moon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared this date, August 23, India’s National Space Day.
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Highlights in the last year
Aditya L1: India followed its lunar success with the successful launch of its solar science mission Aditya-L1 on September 2, 2023. The launch was the easiest part of the mission, onboard ISRO’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The spacecraft executed a series of manoeuvres to move into an orbit around the first earth-Sun Lagrange point, called L1, on January 6, 2024. It completed its first orbit around L1 on July 2, 2024. In this time, it studied a solar storm in May 2024 together with observatories on the ground and spacecraft in lunar orbit.
Gaganyaan TV-D1: ISRO used a modified L-40 Vikas engine to build its Test Vehicle (TV) that it used to perform the first abort mission (TV-D1) on October 21, 2023, as part of its ‘Gaganyaan’ human spaceflight mission. The mission demonstrated the ability of the Crew Escape System (CES) to separate from the TV, take the crew module to safety, and the crew module’s ability to decelerate before splashing down in the Bay of Bengal. The crew module at the test’s end was recovered by the Indian Navy vessel INS Shakthi.
XPoSat: ISRO celebrated the new year with the launch of its X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) on January 1, 2024. The satellite will study how radiation is polarised and thus learn more about various sources of radiation in space. It is the second such space-based observatory after NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IPEX), launched in 2021. The two instruments on board XPoSat, called XSPECT and POLIX, began operating after launch on January 5 and 10.
INSAT-3DS: ISRO launched the meteorological satellite INSAT-3DS on February 17 onboard a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). This mission was important to prove the vehicle’s credibility before the critical NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, now expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2025. This version of the GSLV had previously successfully launched the NVS-01 satellite in 2023.
RLV-TD: ISRO used a downscale version of the Reusable Launch Vehicle, called Pushpak, to conduct two landing experiments (LEX-02 and LEX-03) on March 22 and June 7 at its Aeronautical Testing Range in Challakere, Karnataka. The tests simulated landing conditions from space by dropping the Pushpak vehicle from a Chinook helicopter. While LEX-02 dropped Pushpak along its landing path, LEX-03 dropped it 500 metres to one side. The success of these tests gave ISRO the confidence to move on to the Orbital Return Flight Experiment (OREX).
SSLV: On August 16, ISRO launched the third and final development flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), placing the EOS-08 and the SR-0 Demosat satellites in orbit. With two consecutively successful test flights, ISRO declared the SSLV’s development complete and green-lit its transfer to industry. EOS-08 carried three payloads: one for earth observation in the infrared range, one to demonstrate the use of reflections from a global satellite navigation system for earth observation, and one ultraviolet dosimeter and alarm to be tested ahead of their use in the Gaganyaan crew module.
ISRO roadmaps
After handing over operational responsibilities to NewSpace India, Ltd. (NSIL), ISRO has been prioritising research. In December 2023, ISRO Chairman S. Somanath announced a 25-year roadmap, until 2047, for Gaganyaan. It intersects with the lunar exploration roadmap in the form of an Indian landing on the Moon by 2040.
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Mr. Somanath also shared a lunar exploration roadmap that includes — apart from an Indian on the moon — a lunar sample-return mission, a long-duration mission on the lunar surface, docking with NASA’s Lunar Gateway (under the Artemis programme), building habitats on the lunar surface.
Gaganyaan
One of ISRO’s primary focus areas of late has been to train its astronaut-candidates, or Gaganyatris, for spaceflight.
Prime Minister Modi revealed the candidates names on February 27: Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla and Group Captains Prashanth Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Pratap.
Earlier this month, Mr. Shukla and Mr. Nair travelled to the U.S. for advanced training leading up to one of them flying to the International Space Station (ISS). This is likely to be Mr. Shukla, with Mr. Nair his designated back-up. The mission will be conducted by Axiom Space, a private company, with inputs from NASA and onboard SpaceX’s launch vehicle and crew capsule. The flight is scheduled for 2025.
ISRO has also planned at least four more abort tests using its test vehicle before the historic crewed flight. The first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission is expected to fly in late 2024.
Mr. Somanath’s roadmap also includes plans to build an Indian space station called the ‘Bharatiya Antariksh Station’ (BAS) by 2035.
Next-generation Launch Vehicle
Since India is aspiring to both the BAS and a full-fledged lunar programme, it requires a new launch vehicle that can deliver heavier payloads per launch than its PSLV or GSLV rockets. This is set to be ISRO’s Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV).
The organisation has set up a team led by Project Director S. Sivakumar, which submitted a project report to the Union Cabinet in February with a specific request for funding and details of the NGLV, including manufacturing requirements.
ISRO has planned for NGLV to be a three-stage launch vehicle powered by a semi-cryogenic engine, a liquid engine, and a cryogenic engine. ISRO doesn’t plan to continue the use of the GSLV once the NGLV is ready. The PSLV on the other hand is already under production by a private consortium led by Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Aeronautics, Ltd.
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But until then, ISRO is working on developing the semi-cryogenic engine for the LVM-3 rocket — another name for the GSLV Mk III — to enhance its launch capability. On May 2 and 21, it successfully tested the engine’s pre-burner ignition test article in important milestones.
NSIL missions
ISRO is focusing on research because the NSIL has been tasked with conducting missions and chaperoning commercial activities. On May 1, ISRO transferred all commercial activities related to Indian Remote Sensing satellite data and products to the NSIL.
The NSIL signed an agreement with SpaceX to launch the GSAT-20/GSAT-N2 satellite, its second demand-driven satellite. LVM-3 is currently not capable of launching this 4,700-tonne machine. SpaceX is expected to launch it in August 2024 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
On May 10, the NSIL also released a request for qualification for the production of LVM-3 through a public-private partnership and signed a dedicated launch service agreement with an Australian private space company to launch the SSLV.
Private space missions
Private company Agnikul Cosmos successfully launched its SoRTeD-01 vehicle from its launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on March 21. This was the first launch of a vehicle powered by a semi-cryogenic engine as its first stage from Indian soil.
Skyroot Aerospace is progressing towards the launch of its launch vehicle, Vikram 1. It had previously pressure-tested its solid-fuel engines between May and July 2024 and launched a test vehicle called Vikram S from Sriharikota on November 18, 2022.
Dhruva Space and Bellatrix Aerospace flew their experiments on the fourth and final stages of the PSLV-C58 mission on January 1. (In this mission, the fourth stage turned itself into a small satellite, giving the payloads onboard an orbiting platform to conduct their studies).
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IN-SPACe
In the last year, there have been several notable policy updates and licences issued by India’s new space regulator, IN-SPACe. Most importantly, it released the ‘Norms, Guidelines, and Procedures for Authorisation of Space Activities’ on May 3.
It also granted the country’s first satellite broadband licence to Eutelsat OneWeb on November 21, 2023, and granted the first licence for a ground station as a service, to be provided by Dhruva Space on July 15.
Finally, on February 21, the Government of India amended its foreign direct investment (FDI) policy to allow 100% direct FDI in all space and spaceflight segments except for a 74% ceiling in satellite manufacturing and operations and 49% in launch infrastructure.
Pradeep Mohandas is a technical writer and space enthusiast in Pune.
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