Where is ISRO heading?: The Hindu update
Only three decades ago, the Indian space programme was a diminutive affair, dominated by the newfound successes of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and
Only three decades ago, the Indian space programme was a diminutive affair, dominated by the newfound successes of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and a then-fledgling clump of communications satellites. Today, the programme is a large tree with a flourishing canopy. There is a slew of ongoing projects accompanied by projects being ideated, developed, tested as well as retired. Also Read:Indian space programme breaks into 2025 on ‘mission mode’ The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) — employer of several thousand engineers, scientists, and administrators — is now accompanied by IN-SPACe, a new nodal agency to oversee and enable private space enterprises’ activities, and NewSpace India, Ltd., to manage commercial launch commissions and commercialise Indian space technologies. ISRO’s spaceport in Andhra Pradesh has expanded to two launch pads while a second port is under construction in Tamil Nadu. Its PSLV rocket is likewise joined by five others — three operational and two in the works — with bespoke features to meet specific civil and national needs while serving commercial markets when opportunities arise. ISRO operates more than 50 satellites in earth orbit and has launched more than 400 in commercial missions paid for by foreign governments and companies. It has also hoisted four missions to the moon, one to Mars, two space telescopes, and a solar physics probe. Missions in the near future include a synthetic aperture radar satellite co-built with NASA, more interplanetary missions, an orbital space station, and of course human spaceflight. Its experts are designing next-generation engines (especially the SCE-200), green(er) fuels, and high-performance materials. The organisation is currently transferring SSLV and PSLV manufacturing to industry while government reforms from 2019 invited private enterprises to build and operate virtually any technology. Defining success Against the backdrop of India’s history, a national space programme of this magnitude is by all means very successful. ‘Success’ here refers to the programme’s ability to plan and execute longer-term projects with crore-rupee budgets, coordinate activities across multiple centres, manage procurement, logistics, and accounts with industry contractors, and balance political ambitions and public expectations. Unfortunately, neither ISRO nor the programme has the luxury of having their efforts vis-à-vis spaceflight, space exploration, and commercialisation judged only by the yardstick of how far India alone has come. India produces smart scientists but is struggling to retain them The fact is the Indian space programme can take great strides and still remain uncompetitive with the other countries belonging to the same elite club to which it has repeatedly claimed to belong. While the U.S. and Russia (including the erstwhile USSR) had a head start of many decades, China, Japan, and Europe for a long time enjoyed more funding, technological sophistication or both. But it’s also possible to flip this tension the other way. The dramatic rise of commercial opportunities in space technologies and spaceflight — led by the successes of and radical innovation by companies like SpaceX and aided by the struggles of regulatory agencies to catch up — has placed the carts of profit and/or primacy before the horse of national needs. For example, India is committed to an increasingly complex series of scientific missions to the moon, to be complemented in due course by the Bharatiya Antariksh Station and crewed moon missions. The cumulative cost will be in the tens of thousands of crore rupees and lakhs of work-hours — yet neither ISRO nor the Department of Space have explicitly articulated what the ultimate purpose is here. Simply put, what’s in it for Indians? Long-term priorities In 2019-2020, the Department of Space reorganised the space programme to allow ISRO to focus on research. It hived off the responsibility of organising and executing commercial launches to NewSpace India, Ltd. (a public-sector undertaking), in 2019 and that of overseeing the activities of the country’s young and ambitious space startups to IN-SPACe (an autonomous body) in 2020. This division of labour was intended to improve each arm’s ability to better define its goals and work towards them in an era in which space technologies are both diversifying and becoming more sophisticated. At the same time, the division is still open-ended to the extent that there isn’t a policy or law that specifies what long-term goals they are collectively working towards and why. This is in and of itself not a bad thing if the space programme is also finding its footing, but it can’t afford to take its time. Some important inefficiencies linger in the reorganisation that could lead to the uneconomical use of valuable resources.
The BriefWire