ISRO lines up science missions for 2023; satellite launch market set for rocket-themed game of thrones

The upcoming year will also witness a series of experiments on India's maiden human space flight-Gaganyaan project.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will turn its focus on science experiments in 2023 with dedicated missions to the Sun - Aditya - and the moon - Chandrayaan-3 - even as the nascent start-up sector is set to soar in the space applications segment.

The upcoming year will also witness a series of experiments on India's maiden human space flight - Gaganyaan project - with the first uncrewed mission expected in the last quarter of 2023 aimed at validating the performance of the human-rated launch vehicle, orbital module propulsion system and recovery operations.

ISRO further plans to conduct the first runway landing experiment (RLV-LEX) of the reusable launch vehicle early next year from Aeronautical Test Range in Karnataka's Chitradurga, Union Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh told Parliament this month.

Indian start-ups that marked their arrival with the sub-orbital flight by Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-S rocket, the first by a private sector company and the launch of Pixxel's hyperspectral satellites Shakuntala, on SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket in April and Anand onboard ISRO's PSLV in November.

Skyroot Aerospace, which launched India's first privately developed rocket in November, plans to put a client satellite in orbit sometime next year, while Agnikul Cosmos, a start-up incubated on the IIT-Madras campus, has also lined up the test flight of its highly customisable Agnibaan rocket.

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"We are developing six commercial hyperspectral imagery satellites which will be ready for launch next year," Awais Ahmed, Pixxel co-founder and CEO, had told PTI.