“Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems,” goes a popular saying. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched two of its biggest and heaviest rockets in record time – first on October 23, 2022, and the second on March 26, 2022. Both were commercial assignments, where the LVM3 rocket ferried 72 satellites of the United Kingdom-based telecom firm OneWeb. Previously, OneWeb gave this project to the Russian space agency- Roscosmos.
“PM Modi took a decision to open the space sector for private participation. Today because of this within 3 yrs, the number of startups has reached 150 in ISRO…Today Cabinet has approved Indian Space Policy 2023 which in brief would offer clarity to the role of each of these other components which have been set up to enhance the role of the space dept, to give a boost to the ISRO missions” —Dr Jitendra Singh, Deputy Union Minister, on April 6, 2023
Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the project got cancelled. With limited options, OneWeb approached India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get support in enabling these commercial launch projects with ISRO. ISRO comes under the Department of Space, which is part of the Prime Minister’s portfolio. PM Modi saw an opportunity for Bharat’s space economy.
Confronting Setbacks
On the occasion of completion of OneWeb, Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal stated that Bharat stepped up its support when the Bharti group and the United Kingdom Government-backed company confronted
severe setbacks. After the launch, ISRO Chairman Dr S Somanath also accredited the role of the Indian Prime Minister in offering support and making the LVM3 rockets available for commercial launches, said, “It was at such a short notice that this opportunity to launch 72 OneWeb satellites came to us. We had to get ready with required approvals and the processes to enable such commercial missions.”
नभ : स्पृशं दीप्तम्- The Glory that Touches the Sky
This would be an apt quote to describe Bharat’s space agency, ISRO. As per Citigroup’s May 2022 report, the global space industry should reach $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2040. ISRO is on the path to contribute significantly to make India a $5 trillion economy.
Boost to Space sector
- ISRO has earned $94 million in foreign exchange from January 2018 to November 22, 2023
- From January 2018 to November 2022, ISRO has successfully launched 177 foreign satellites belonging to countries like Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US
- ISRO launched its largest and heaviest rockets in record time – on October 23, 2022, and March 26, 2023. Both were commercial missions, where the LVM3 rocket ferried a total of 72 satellites of the UK-based telecom firm OneWeb, thus earning ISRO a total revenue of more than Rs 1100 crores or $137 million
From the OneWeb project, ISRO (its commercial-arm NSIL) earned $ 137 million. ISRO enabled OneWeb to complete its constellation comprising 618 broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit through two launch missions. These are the only commercial missions Bharat’s heftiest launcher has executed. Mentioning the two successful OneWeb launches by ISRO. Mittal stated that NSIL (Commerical entity under ISRO) had established itself as a significant global commercial launch market player. Elaborating on the opportunity ahead for ISRO, Mittal said that a void is formed due to the inaccessibility of mainstay launchers like Russian Soyuz rockets and Europe Ariane V (retired) and the long delays on the Ariane VI rocket. He hoped India’s ISRO would grab this opportunity to become a leading competitor to SpaceX in the launch industry. ISRO’s construct and assign rockets are based on advance demands from customers. Usually, as a Government-administered space agency, ISRO strategises its assignments well in advance. Providing rockets at such a short notice for commercial projects is challenging in such a scenario. Fortunaely, ISRO overcomes all challenges and delivered desired results successfully. Recently, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) invited Indian industries to build 100 solutions supporting its launch vehicles, satellites, space application, human space flight, and space study. ISRO invited Indian industries to build solutions like realisation and flight testing of sub-scale Hybrid Drone Prototype for DroneNet, building a Head Mount Display (HMD) for Gaganyaan crew to provide situational cognisance, space wreckage surveillance and tracking radar, flooding surveillance system through multi-radar and sensor network.
Key Verticals
ISRO is running multidisciplinary R&D programmes correlated to its key verticals — space transportation, space infrastructure, space applications, ground systems and human space exploration. Further, NASA and ISRO have jointly built an earth science satellite called NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar). NISAR’s primary aims are to design, build, and launch a dual-frequency (L and S band) radar imaging satellite and to discover new application areas using L & S Band microwave data, predominantly in surface deformation studies, terrestrial biomass structure, natural resource mapping and monitoring, and research on the dynamics of ice-sheets, glaciers, forests and oil slicks. The NISAR satellite is furnished with an I-3K bus and a SAR instrument. NISAR is based on the innovative Sweep SAR technique. It functions in both L and S bands and has a polarimetric configuration, providing a wide swath and high resolution. NISAR will travel in a sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 747 km and an inclination of 98.4 degrees, completing a 12-day cycle. NASA is accountable for providing the L-Band SAR payload, high-precision GPS, and a 12m unfurlable antenna. At the same time, ISRO is liable for the S-Band SAR payload, spacecraft bus, and launch facilitation. Till February 2023, ISRO has invested Rs. 469.40 crores in the realisation of the NISAR satellite.
Examining Moon’s Dark Side
ISRO is also working with the Japanese space agency to launch a land-rover Moon Mission to examine the Moon’s dark side, following trips to the Moon and Mars. In a significant boost for the Indian Army’s communication ability, the Indian Defence Ministry signed a contract with NSIL- the commercial arm of ISRO. The Indian Army will get an advanced communication satellite, GSAT 7B, to fulfil a long-standing need. The officials said that the satellite, with advanced security features, would support tactical communication requirements of troops deployed on the ground, remotely piloted aircraft, air defence weapons and other mission critical and fire support platforms.
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