Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said that India was the fifth amongst spacefaring nations having end-to-end capabilities in space research and development.
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said, “India is the fifth amongst spacefaring nations having end-to-end capabilities in space research and development, including the capability to launch from our own land and operate programs of earth observation, satellite communication, meteorology, space science and navigation and ground infrastructure.” In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that right now NewSpace industries are also emerging at a fast pace after space sector reforms.
The Minister also listed out significant progress made by ISRO during the last five years.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, “27 satellites and 22 Launch Vehicle missions have been successfully accomplished during the period (July 2018 – July 2023), besides the successful Pad Abort Test (PAT) to qualify the Crew Escape System (CES) in July 2018 and the Reusable Launch Vehicle autonomous landing mission in April 2023.”
He said that in June 2018, India announced a capacity building training programme UNNATI (UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training by ISRO) on Nanosatellites development through a combination of theoretical coursework and hands-on training on Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT). A total of 90 participants from 45 countries benefitted from the program across three batches.
“India’s second mission to Moon, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully launched on July 22, 2019 on-board GSLV Mk III-M1. Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter is providing valuable science data for the research community,” he said.
The launch of PSLV-C48/ RISAT-2BR1 in December 2019 marked the 50th launch of PSLV, the workhorse launch vehicle.
“In 2019, ISRO launched an annual special programme called “Young Scientist Programme” or the “YUva VIgyani KAryakram” (YUVIKA), in line with the Government’s vision “Jai Vigyan, Jai Anusandhan”. A total of 603 students have attended the YUVIKA program spread over 3 years – 2019, 2022 and 2023,” the Union Minister added.
In 2019, the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) got incorporated, as a wholly-owned Government of India Undertaking/ Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE), under the administrative control of Department of Space (DOS).
Dr Jitendra Singh said, “On June 26, 2020, the Government of India announced Space Sector Reforms – a major transformation of Indian Space Sector with enhanced participation of private players in Indian space programme and playing key roles to boost India’s market share in Global Space Economy. Setting up of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) and enhancing the role New Space India Limited (NSIL) are the two major thrust areas in the Reform.”
The establishment of IN-SPACe was announced in June 2020 by Government of India, as an autonomous agency under Department of Space, to create eco-system of industry, academia and start-ups and to attract major share in the global space economy, by authorizing and regulating activities of NGEs in space sector through detailed guidelines and procedures. IN-SPACe Headquarters at Ahmedabad was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in June 2022.
The Minister of State (Department of Space) dedicated ISRO System for Safe & Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS4OM) to the nation in July, 2022. LVM3 (GSLV MkIII) M2/OneWeb India-1 Mission was successfully accomplished on 23rd October 2022.
The minister further added, “Launch of Vikram-S (Prarambh mission), a suborbital launch vehicle from M/s Skyroot Aerospace Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, was accomplished successfully on 18th November 2022.”
First private launchpad and mission control center established by Agnikul Cosmos Pvt. Ltd., Chennai in ISRO campus at SDSC, SHAR on 25th November 2022.
“On Feb 10th, 2023, the successful flight of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV – D2) took place, launching three satellites – EOS-07, Janus-1 and AzaadiSAT-2 (a combined effort of about 750 girl students across India guided by Space Kidz India, Chennai),” he said.
On March 7th, 2023, controlled re-entry experiment for the decommissioned Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT-1) satellite was carried out successfully, with final impact in the Pacific Ocean, demonstrating the nation’s continued efforts towards ensuring the long-term sustainability of outer space activities.
Union Minister of State said, “LVM3 M3/OneWeb India-2 Mission was successfully accomplished on 26th March, 2023, placing 36 OneWeb satellites into their intended orbit. With this, NSIL successfully executed its contract to launch 72 satellites of OneWeb to Low Earth Orbit.”
Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) was successfully demonstrated at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, Karnataka on 2nd April, 2023.
“GSLV-F12/NVS-01 mission was successfully accomplished on 29th May, 2023. GSLV deployed the NVS-01 navigation satellite, the first of the second-generation satellites envisaged for the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) service,into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. LVM3-M4 successfully launched the Chandrayaan-3 Spacecraft on 14th July, 2023. Lunar orbit insertion activities are in progress and Moon landing is scheduled on 23rd August, 2023,” he added.