After dry phase, ISRO back with a bang, eyes commercial market too

Saturday’s launch will see India’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carry ISRO’s own earth observation satellite designed for ocean monitoring along with eight other co-passengers. The main payload, EOS-06, previously referred to as Oceansat-3, has an ocean colour monitor, a sea surface temperature monitor, a scatterometer (to study wind directions over the sea), and a French payload Argos meant for monitoring the ocean and marine biology.

The passenger satellites for the mission include a nanosatellite — INS-2B — jointly developed by India and Bhutan for optical imaging and radio systems and seven technology demonstrator satellites, including three from two Indian start-ups. The mission will carry four Astrocast satellites by spaceflight USA to be used for internet of things, two Thybolt communication satellites from Dhruvaspace, and one hyperspectral earth observation satellite called Anand from Pixxel that aims to create a constellation of such satellites for better imaging.

This will be the 56th flight of PSLV and the third this year. The launch vehicle will fly in its XL configuration that uses four boosters along with the first stage to carry heavier payload.

This year, there have been two other PSLV launches — one carrying another earth observation satellite, EOS-03, and a commercial mission carrying a satellite from Singapore. Other than that, ISRO also entered the commercial market with its heavier LVM3 (previously known as GSLV Mk III), carrying 36 OneWeb satellites for a broadband constellation.

“It is good that India is now focusing on the commercial launch market, seizing the opportunity to launch the OneWeb satellites on LVM3 that were initially to be launched by Russia,” said Ajey Lele, senior fellow at Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. “ISRO will carry out another mission carrying 36 satellites for OneWeb. Although they have managed to fill the void created by Russia due to the war [in Ukraine], there is a need for ISRO to now create its own space in the sector,”

He said, “So far, ISRO had been launching only micro- and nano-satellites commercially, as co-passengers with its own satellites — barring, say, three missions where the commercial satellites were the primary payload. India made up for only 2% of the commercial space market and this can be increased.”

Other than the PSLV launches, the space agency also undertook the maiden flight of its newly developed Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, which was a partial success, with the three rocket stages working as intended but the satellites being injected into a wrong orbit. Supporting the upcoming launch vehicle start-ups in India, ISRO also aided Skyroot Aerospace in its first sub-orbital flight from the sounding rocket station at Sriharikota a few days ago.

The space agency also carried out the satellite mission GSAT 24, launched by Arianespace from Kourou-French Guiana. This was also a “demand-driven” mission undertaken by the commercial arm of ISRO for DTH services provided by Tata.

“ISRO is definitely picking up pace this year. There were delays in several missions over the last two years, which can be attributed to the industry not being functional,” Lele said. “The industry has now geared up and it is visible. Other than that, there has also been a change of leadership.”

In 2020, ISRO had undertaken two PSLV missions, carrying one earth observation and one communication satellite. In 2021, the space agency conducted a PSLV commercial mission to launch Brazil’s earth observation satellite and another one of its own on board GSLV, which failed as the third stage did not ignite.

The space agency is also working on big-ticket missions such as the Chandrayaan 3 and the first unmanned Gaganyaan mission.