5 launches planned in 5 months; LVM3 to be made by industry: ISRO chairman
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The Indian Space agency has 4 variants of rockets in its fleet and all of them will be heading for space over the next 5 months. Indicating that a busy mission schedule lay ahead for the Indian Space Research Organization, Chairman, Dr. S.Somanath outlined the launch line-up and the role of private industries in building ISRO's rockets, while speaking to WION.
"We follow the financial year - We are now getting ready for a launch of PSLV(Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket, possibly November-end, where PSLV will be carrying 'OceanSat', 'BhutanSat' and four customer satellites on board. We also have to do the SSLV(Small Satellite Launch Vehicle) mission, after making the corrections for the failure we encountered last time" he told WION.
Further, he said that there was another launch of the heaviest rocket LVM3, that will be performed to loft 36 OneWeb satellites in Low Earth orbit, sometime around January or February 2023. In addition to this, there would be a launch of the GSLV Mk2 rocket (now known as GSLV), to orbit Next-gen 'NavIC' satellites that are meant for Navigation purposes for India. He also said that the agency would be attempting to perform India's maiden mission to study the sun - Aditya-L1, before the end of March 2023.
Effectively, this means that there would be 2 flights of PSLV rockets, and one flight each of the SSLV, GSLV, and LVM3, would take place by March 2023. It must also be noted that each satellite that ISRO builds for India is also counted as a mission in itself.
Queried about the possibility of the GSLV rockets being manufactured by the Indian private industry, Somanath said that a manufacturing contract for five PSLV rockets had been given to the Indian industry(Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-Larsen& Toubro), on an experimental basis.
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"The PSLV is an experiment to see if the manufacturing base in the country can bring out a PSLV on their own, operate on their own, and ramp up production demand beyond the five units. This five is only a test case in which ISRO will hand-hold industry to understand the technology and take the whole activity forward", he said.
Beyond the five PSLV rockets, the industry can fund itself, build more PSLVs, operate more, and offer them commercially, it depends on the industry's capability. However, in terms of the GSLV(GSLV Mk2) rocket, Somanath said that ISRO didn't consider it a commercial launcher and that the rocket could be retired after 10 more flights.
As expected, it is the LVM3 or GSLV Mk3 that ISRO pins most of its hope on. Somanath said that ISRO saw higher commercial potential in LVM3 and that talks are underway with industries. He said that ISRO's commercial arm NewSpace India Limited would industrialize it sooner.
