Deepening India’s steps as a key space-faring nation Premium

India must foster a strong ecosystem for the growth of a specialised industrial base that can cater to India’s needs and ambitions in outer space

India has set ambitious goals for its space programme in the next two decades. These goals hinge on powerful, reusable rockets such as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s upcoming Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV). In addition to the NGLV, India must tap into its private sector to develop more such rockets in order to secure strategic autonomy in its access to outer space.

From an infant space programme in the 1960s, India has grown into a powerful space-faring nation. Preparations for the Gaganyaan mission are underway. Gaganyaan will take an Indian crew to space for the first time, demonstrating Indian human-spaceflight capability. By the end of the next decade, India aims to have a more sustained presence in space by having its own space station in orbit around earth. It also aims to expand its human-spaceflight capabilities to the moon.

Realising these objectives effects a road map that consists of multiple uncrewed missions to the moon, mastering human-centric technologies for space travel and developing powerful new rockets. These rockets have to carry heavier payloads to support humans in space. They should also be financially viable as it will take many test flights to reach the safety and the reliability standards for human-spaceflight to the moon. ISRO is fulfilling these requirements with its upcoming NGLV, which has been recently approved for development by the Union Cabinet.

The significance of the NGLV lies in its heavy lift capability and reusability. The NGLV will triple the payload capacity of the LVM3 (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III), which is India’s most powerful rocket. This comes with numerous benefits. Heavy lift rockets ease restrictions related to weight and volume. It frees up the focus of engineers and scientists that would otherwise have to be spent on miniaturisation or weight reduction. It greatly increases the potential of space-related missions. The possibilities increase exponentially.

In contrast to all of India’s existing rockets which are expendable as they are built for one-time use, a major part of the NGLV will be reusable. Reusability requires that the rocket keep some of its fuel for controlled descent back to the earth’s surface. This reduces the capacity of the rocket to carry heavier loads but offers massive cost savings. Reusability has become necessary for rockets to remain competitive.

The NGLV’s development phase will last for the next eight years. In the meantime, the need for heavy lift capability is already felt. India’s next uncrewed moon mission is slated to use not one, but two rockets. Two LVM3s will carry the requisite modules. They will then be assembled in space to form one composite vehicle that will go to the moon.

In another instance, GSAT-N2, a communication satellite built by ISRO, was launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. It weighed 4,700 kg while the maximum weight that an LVM3 can carry to the Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) is 4,000 kg. A reusable Falcon 9 from SpaceX, a U.S. company, can carry up to 5,500 kg to the Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). Foregoing reusability, an expendable Falcon 9’s capacity increases to 8,300 kg. Even this figure is dwarfed in comparison to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and Starship rockets.