ISRO’s successful LVM-3 launch: With One Web, how the agency is firming up its reputation in commercial launches
Context- On Sunday (March 26), the second commercial launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s LVM-3 saw 36 OneWeb satellites placed in orbit. This was also the second launch that ISRO performed for OneWeb, a UK-based company supported by the UK government and India’s Bharti Enterprises.
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It was the sixth launch for India’s heaviest rocket LVM-3 – which includes the launch of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 – and the second one where it demonstrated the capability of launching multiple satellites in low earth orbit (LEO).
On Sunday (March 26), the second commercial launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s LVM-3 saw 36 OneWeb satellites placed in orbit. This was also the second launch that ISRO performed for OneWeb, a UK-based company supported by the UK government and India’s Bharti Enterprises.
It was the sixth launch for India’s heaviest rocket LVM-3 – which includes the launch of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 – and the second one where it demonstrated the capability of launching multiple satellites in low earth orbit (LEO).
How ISRO’s OneWeb launch happened
- OneWeb was initially supposed to launch its satellites through the Russian space agency. It cancelled the plan after the agency halted the launch amid the Russia-Ukraine war, seeking an assurance from the UK government-backed company that the satellites wouldn’t be used against them and that the British government would sell its stake.
- Sunil Bharti Mittal, executive chairman of OneWeb, said: “India stepped up, when we needed them the most. We had a big setback with the Russia-Ukraine war — six launches that were contracted and fully paid for were taken out.
- Now, not only OneWeb is struggling to get the money back, it has also lost 36 satellites, three very valuable, and importantly lost nearly a year.”
- Europe’s ArianeSpace was not viable as it had retired its workhorse Ariane5 rocket and there were significant delays with Ariane6. Mittal said once Russia’s Soyuz rockets were out there were few options left, with the remaining satellites in the constellation of over 600 satellites launched by SpaceX and ISRO.
India’s plans to increase commercial launches
- The launches not only established LVM3 as a commercial vehicle propelling ISRO’s entry into the commercial heavier launch market, but it also earned the agency upwards of Rs 1,000 crore.
- The service provided to OneWeb, for which the space agency had to move around a few of its missions, ended up earning it one of the highest revenues. And, over the years, there has been an increase in funds that the space agency has generated.
- The government plans to increase India’s 2% share in the commercial market to 10% by 2030 through commercial launches by ISRO and launches offered by private companies like Skyroot and Agnikul, which are in the process of developing their own launch vehicles.
- Keeping the commercial sector in mind, ISRO has also developed the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), which is meant to provide on-demand launch services commercially. It has a low turn-around time of days and costs much less than the current workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
- Till date, ISRO has launched 384 foreign satellites from at least 36 countries, with at least 10 dedicated commercial missions and several other Indian missions where they were carried as co-passenger satellites.
- The highest number of these commercial launches have been by companies from the United States.
- A report of the parliamentary standing committee on the budget of the space agency said that there has been an increase in the revenue generated by ISRO’s commercial arm New Space India Limited, created in 2019.
- As per the report, revenue generated by NSIL has increased from Rs 1,731 crores in 2021-22 to a projected Rs 3,509 crores in 2023-24.
- But it is not just the commercial arm, the revenue generated by the department has also increased. The committee noted that the revenue generated by the Department of Space increased from Rs 929 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 2,780 in 2022-23. This is an increase of nearly 200%.
Conclusion- Commercial launches are suggestive of the fact that the Department is transitioning from a research based institution to a more commercially oriented agency with buoyant internal revenues.
Syllabus- GS-3; Science and Tech
Source- Indian Express
