India's LVM3 rocket enhanced to lift over 9,200 kg to Low Earth Orbit

After a series of improvements over the years, India's most capable rocket LVM3 is presently capable of lifting 9,200kg to low Earth orbit (about 400kms above the Earth), ISRO Chief Dr. V. Narayanan told WION. He added that the rocketry muscle power of the LVM3 would be further enhanced to lift 9,500kg to facilitate the Indian Gaganyaan Human Spaceflight mission. He added that the rocket can lift 9,500 kg to LEO after being fitted with a 'C32' Cryogenic upper stage which is a larger version of the existing 'C25' stage. The 'C32' stage will carry 32 tonnes of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, seven tons higher than the 'C25'.

In its present avatar, the LVM3 can lift about 4,200-4,300 kg to the higher orbit known as Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, Dr Narayanan stated. Geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) is where heavy communication satellites are initially launched into before being pushed into their final geostationary orbit.

The ISRO Chairman and Secretary of the Indian Government's Department of Space spoke following the successful placement of American firm AST SpaceMobile's Bluebird-6 satellite in orbit nearly 520 kilometres above the Earth. This marked the ninth successful mission in a row for the LVM3 vehicle and its third commercial mission. Weighing 6,100kg, the Bluebird-6 is the heaviest satellite to be carried by an Indian rocket.

This goes on to further cement the reliability of the Indian rocket that is meant to carry India's astronauts to space as part of Gaganyaan. The LVM3 vehicle that will carry astronauts will be designed as H-LVM3 or Human-rated LVM3, indicating that it has been certified and enhanced for safely ferrying astronauts.

Gaganyaan is an Indian government-funded project to launch astronauts to space from home soil on an indigenously designed and developed rocket and crewed capsule. The target is to launch the crewed capsule 400 km above the Earth, allow the astronauts to spend a short time in orbit, and then return for a splashdown landing

In Indian waters. Four Indian Air Force test pilots have been chosen for the Gaganyaan programme. Speaking about the commercial demand for LVM3, M. Mohan, Acting CMD for ISRO's commercial arm NSIL, said that there is a demand for launching six to ten LVM3 rockets annually, in the coming years. He added that the precise launch carried out on Wednesday (Dec 24) yet again demonstrated the rocket's performance and capability. Elaborating on the precise launch, he mentioned that the rocket placed the satellite at an altitude of 518.5kms, against a targeted 520 km.

In the last 11 years, the LVM3 has flown nine times and all of these missions have been successful. Usually, LVM3 launches happen only once in a year or once in a few years. However, in recent years, ISRO has shown the capability of launching LVM3 in quicker succession than ever before. Between October 2022 and March 2023, ISRO launched two LVM3 rockets to ferry 72 satellites of European satellite internet provider Eutelsat OneWeb. Further, officials pointed out that they had now executed two LVM3 launches now within a span of 52 days.

The previous LVM3 mission was launched on 2ndNovember to ferry the Indian Navy's GSAT-7R/CMS-03 communication satellite. With the latest launch of Bluebird-6, ISRO and its commercial arm NSIL have ferried a total of 434 satellite for 34 nations. These 434 satellites have been of varying sizes and masses - from shoebox-sized satellites weighing less than 10kg to the massive Bluebird-6 that weighs nearly 6,100 kg.

“This mission exemplifies ISRO’s engineering excellence and operational maturity, enabling heavier payloads that cater to the global demand for advanced satellite constellations. It significantly enhances India’s self-reliance in heavy-lift launches, positioning ISRO as a go-to provider for international missions and fuelling growth in the domestic space ecosystem through technology maturation and infrastructure scalability,” said Lt. Gen. (Retd.) AK Bhatt, Director General, Indian Space Association (ISpA), an industry body.