Indian Space Progress #23: How ISRO et al. laid the groundwork for a decade this year

I’m delighted to welcome GalaxEye Space as the latest sponsor of my Indian Space Progress blog+newsletter! 🚀

Bangalore-based startup GalaxEye is developing hybrid Earth observation satellites with multi-spectral optical imaging plus synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capabilities, with the first launch targeted next year. 🛰️

While 2023 was an incredible year for ISRO in terms of execution of space missions and projects, 2024 was more about those successes giving the Indian government’s Department of Space (DOS) the confidence to plan an ambitious next decade. But ISRO, as usual, remains uninterested in contextualizing all of these advances on any of their channels. This issue of India’s space program lacking clear communications and outreach is partly why I write Indian Space Progress in the first place. And so below is a linked overview of the some of the key groundwork laid this year by DOS and ISRO across orbital launch vehicles, Moon missions, human spaceflight, commercial and private space capabilities, space sciences, and more.

Just like my 2024 global Moon exploration tour, I’ve made a conscious effort to highlight events and trends that actually happened instead of focusing on upcoming events that may or may not be as successful and/or as timely as they’re being touted and reported as. I’ve also included links to reports, analyses, and thoughtful opinions related to these developments by several experts.

Orbital launch flex

• ISRO commercially launched ESA’s Sun-studying Proba-3 satellite pair on a PSLV rocket while SpaceX commercially launched ISRO’s high-throughput GSAT-N2 communications satellite on a Falcon 9, two opposite kinds of events that capture ISRO’s interesting approach to self sufficiency to the extent possible while gaining opportunistic commercial launches
• ISRO operationalized the new, nimble SSLV rocket with a successful second launch but its direct global commercial competitors moved ahead in the meanwhile
• The agency ramped up efforts to increase the production capacity of its most powerful rocket, LVM3, as well as up its mass to orbit
• ISRO continued building a reusable spaceplane with two more landing tests
• The Indian government approved ISRO’s proposal to develop a partially reusable heavy-lift rocket for $1 billion

Chandrayaan(s)

• India approved Chandrayaan 4 as a lunar sample return mission
• On (not) celebrating Chandrayaan 3’s Moon landing
• How ISRO’s Chandrayaan and Gaganyaan programs will converge at Luna (associated video and podcast)
• Discussion document on lunar governance and India
• Chandrayaan 1’s Mission Director passed away; article on his internationally crucial work

A boost for space science

• ISRO began the year by doubling down on space telescopes and Earth observation
• India approved ISRO’s Venus Orbiter Mission (associated podcast)
• The Chandrayaan 3 rover contributed to knowledge of our Moon’s origin
• ISRO scientists aided the global search for lunar water, which though remains unresolved
• Aside: How Chandrayaan 1, 2 and 3 have leveraged their view from the Moon to image a solar eclipse, study the Sun’s flares, and observe Earth as an exoplanet

Many thanks to the Takshashila Institution, PierSight, GalaxEye Space, Gurbir Singh and Arun Raghavan for sponsoring this month’s Indian Space Progress edition. If you too appreciate my efforts to capture true trajectories of Indian space, kindly join them and support my independent writing.

Anchoring human spaceflight

• India revealed the first four astronauts to fly on the country’s initial set of human spaceflight missions as part of ISRO’s Gaganyaan program
  • Related: ISRO’s years of preparations to get India its Yuri Gagarin moment
  • Why does the Gaganyaan crew have no women?
• ISRO entered agreements with ESA and the Australian Space Agency (ASA) to get their ground tracking support for crewed Gaganyaan flights. ASA will aid in crew recovery too if needed.
• In the meanwhile, Indian astronaut training via NASA is ongoing to fly Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station in 2025 through the Ax-4 Axiom Space private mission aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule as Mission Pilot
• The Indian Government sanctioned $1.33 billion (over the prior $1.1 billion) for ISRO to undertake multiple Gaganyaan missions leading into deploying the first module of India’s eventual space station
  • A roadmap for increasingly complex Gaganyaan missions

Private and commercial space

• Despite Agnikul’s much-lauded rocket launch, its future remains unsorted
• Private satellite companies either based in India or with a major Indian presence raised further investments:
  • $24 million by Pixxel Space towards developing its hyperspectral satellites
  • $15 million by Dhruva Space for its upcoming spacecraft manufacturing facility, and to develop full-stack solutions for satellites
  • $10 million by GalaxEye (an Indian Space Progress sponsor) towards hybrid optical-SAR satellites
  • $6 million by PierSight (an Indian Space Progress sponsor) for SAR satellites
  • $2 million by Digantara towards developing space-based space situational awareness capabilities
• Pixxel notably won a NASA contract to provide Earth observation data
• Following the release of India’s much-awaited new space policy early last year, the government formally opened up approval-less foreign direct investments (FDI) for Indian private space companies, and separately established a pool of about $120 million in venture capital funding—which industry experts are cautiously optimistic about

Overarching constraints

• India’s flat space budget for FY2024
• Commercial space reforms and regulations in India became a job half done
• A report by Spaceport SARABHAI on the financial risk coverage of India's commercial space launch industry
• A dialogue by practicing professionals on the evolving landscape of space law as relevant to India

Cooperation and collaboration

• NASA, ISRO, and KARI are coordinating lunar traffic for their orbiters
• ISRO’s Chandrayaan 2 orbiter helped JAXA nail SLIM’s Moon landing
• The “it’s complicated” status of LUPEX / Chandrayaan 5, the joint Indo-Japanese mission to directly study water ice on the Moon’s south pole
• ISRO is aiding NASA in Artemis landing site selection
• A GSLV Mk II rocket successfully launched and deployed ISRO’s INSAT-3DS meteorological satellite, satisfying the launch criteria to finally loft the high-profile NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) Earth observation satellite to space next year

So that was an exhaustive look at India’s space progress in 2024 on multiple fronts. I wrote this for you, not social media or SEO. And so if you loved my 2024 Indian space tour, please share it with other space buffs by grabbing this link, and support my independent writing & this community resource with your donations—especially if you’re feeling generous this holiday season. 🌝

Aside: I attended the 2024 Galaxy Forum in Wenchang, China this month, where I along with speakers from over 12 countries discussed global lunar exploration plans, science from the Moon, and cooperative approaches to those ends. I’ve covered notable updates from the event on Moon Monday #205, and my experience there in Moon Monday #206. There I also gave a talk on India’s space capabilities and ambitions.

As you could see in this edition, India is doing a lot in the sky but ISRO’s outreach is lackluster, and professionals in many countries are not aware of the country’s ambitions and offerings. I’m doing my part with such talks and this monthly Indian Space blog+newsletter, hoping to be a good ambassador for India, science, and international collaboration. 🇮🇳🚀