The Indian space industry is undergoing its largest transformation in decades. Private companies are gradually taking over the production and launch of rockets, while ISRO shifts to more ambitious projects.
According to the Economic Times, ISRO intends to focus on missions such as the Indian space station, a flight to Venus, Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan-4 and the development of the next-generation Vikram rocket.
Last year SpaceX carried out 170 launches, whereas ISRO carried out only five. Without a sufficient number of rockets, India cannot compete for payload on the global market.
The budget of the Department of Space for the fiscal year 2027 is ₹13 705,63 crore — about 1,65 billion dollars. It is unrealistic to expect ISRO to sharply ramp up serial production of rockets or satellites.
The consortium of Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has already received a contract for the full production of five PSLV-XL rockets. The next step is the transfer of the technology of the heavy LVM3 rocket to private companies, with L&T and Adani Group among the possible participants.
This will make it possible to achieve economies of scale and reduce launch costs in order to compete better with SpaceX on the international commercial launch market.
The private sector will take on the routine work of producing rockets and satellites, while ISRO will gain more resources for breakthrough projects. How will this affect the pace of India's space programme in the coming years?
The government has already opened the sector to private investment, and the first results — the transfer of SSLV technology and the plans for LVM3 — show that the process is under way.
