Indian Space Program: News & Discussion

[Rakesh]

https://x.com/SomanathSpeak/status/1993 ... 19237?s=20 ---> Today, Hon’ble Prime Minister Modiji unveiled Skyroot’s Vikram-1 flight rocket at the new Infinity campus — a milestone that marks India’s bold emergence in the new-space era. The upcoming inaugural launch will not only demonstrate the nation’s private-sector launch capability but also signal the beginning of scaled production from this world-class facility. This achievement is a testament to the Hon’ble PM’s visionary leadership that opened India’s space sector to startups, enabling innovation, investment, and global competitiveness to flourish. Proud to have been associated with Skyroot’s inspiring journey, and to witness India’s young entrepreneurs shaping the future of space technology.

[Rakesh]

VIDEO: https://x.com/ANI/status/1993995682072482081?s=20 ---> Hyderabad, Telangana: On PM Modi virtually inaugurating Skyroot Aerospace's Infinity Campus and unveiling India’s first private rocket, Vikram-I, Indian astronaut & IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla says, "...This is the facility that will be used to make the rocket, Vikram-1, which is going to be launched in a few months. This is going to be a defining moment for India's space journey in the private sector because this will be the first orbital-class launch that will happen from Indian soil... My message to the youth is this: India is on its path of space exploration. We have missions like Gaganyaan and Bharatiya Antariksh Station and landing on the moon... I very strongly believe that space is going to be one of the defining sectors in India's journey to Viksit Bharat 2047..."

[Rakesh]

https://x.com/Siege4570/status/1993938943604302320?s=20 ---> PM Modi inaugurates Skyroot’s Infinity Campus in Hyderabad,Bharat’s largest private rocket factory and home to Bharat’s first private commercial rocket.

1 rocket/month capacity
200,000 sq ft facility
Set to contribute to Bharat reaching 50 launches/year by 2030

[Rakesh]

VIDEO: https://x.com/SkyrootA/status/1994056538408026454?s=20 ----> In today's India , no dream is too big, no frontier is beyond reach. Under the visionary leadership of Honourable Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi, the nation has unlocked unprecedented space opportunities, empowered bold innovation, and propelled our space-tech industry to new heights. We are deeply grateful to the Hon'ble Prime Minister for inaugurating Skyroot's Infinity Campus — India's largest private rocket factory. As the Hon'ble Prime Minister said, our Infinity Campus is a symbol of young India's bold ambitions. Thank you, Hon'ble PM, for continuously inspiring and pushing us to dream big and build big — right here in India.

VIDEO: https://x.com/ANI/status/1993927135719735711?s=20 ----> At the inauguration of Indian space startup Skyroot’s Infinity Campus, PM Modi says, "India's youth puts the nation's interests first. They utilise every opportunity wisely. When the government opened the space sector, the country's youth, especially our Gen Z, leapt forward to take full advantage of it. Today, India's more than 300 space startups are giving new hope to India's space future..."

[Ashokk]

ISRO's Brutal 'No-GPS' Drone Challenge: Why Everyone Failed
ISRO's 'No-GPS' Drone Challenge was so brutal that not a single team could complete the full autonomous mission. Why did everyone fail?

Chapters:
00:00 - ISRO Drone Challenge goal/mission
01:08 - Team Njord 3rd place
04:04 - Team Soorya 2nd place
07:11 - Team Galactic Gearheads 1st place
10:10 - Comaprison to Nasa's approach/method

[Ashokk]

Successful Demonstration of Boot-Strap Mode Start of CE20 Cryogenic engine

The CE20 cryogenic engine, powering the LVM3 upper stage, is already qualified for operation at thrust levels ranging from 19 to 22 tonnes in flight with a single start. The engine has also been qualified for the Gaganyaan missions. During nominal operation, the engine ignition is initiated under tank head conditions, followed by the start of turbopumps using a stored gas start-up system.

For future missions, multiple in-flight restarts of the CE20 engine will be required for mission flexibility towards multi-orbit missions. However, with the present configuration, each restart demands an additional start-up gas bottle and associated systems, leading to a reduction in vehicle payload capability. Hence, achieving boot-strap mode start - where the engine builds up to steady operation without external start-up assistance - is essential.

In this regard, a boot-strap mode start test on the CE20 Cryogenic engine was successfully conducted under vacuum conditions in the High-Altitude Test (HAT) facility at ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri on 7th November 2025, for a duration of 10 seconds. A multi-element igniter was employed in both the thrust chamber and gas generator to facilitate boot-strap starting. In this test, following the ignition of the thrust chamber, the gas generator was ignited under tank head conditions, and the turbopumps were started without the use of the start-up system. Subsequently, boot-strap mode build-up and steady-state operation of the engine were successfully demonstrated.

With this achievement, ISRO has successfully demonstrated boot-strap mode starting of a gas-generator cycle cryogenic engine without any auxiliary start-up system, perhaps for the first time in the world - a significant milestone towards enhancing the restart capability and mission flexibility of future LVM3 flights.

[uddu]

One of the comments

@TheDesiStand
3 hours ago
While Pappu tells Gen Z to Rise up against India..

Modiji tells Gen Z to Rise up for India.


PM Modi unveils India's First Private Orbital Rocket Vikram-1 | Vantage with Palki Sharma | N18G
India's prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Skyroot Infinity, the new sprawling campus of India's largest space start-up. The PM also remotely unveiled Vikram-1, the country's first private orbital rocket, set to be launched in 2026. What does this mean for India's private space sector? Palki Sharma tells you.

[uddu]

Infinity Campus - India's Largest Private Rocket Factory | Skyroot Aerospace
In 2018, Skyroot Aerospace began with a bold mission: Opening Space for All. What started with twenty people in a shared office has grown into over a thousand space professionals working across two state-of-the-art facilities.

This is the story of Skyroot—the journey that led to Infinity Campus, India's largest private rocket factory, inaugurated by the Honourable Prime Minister Shri ‪@NarendraModi‬ on November 27, 2025.

With a team that sees challenges as opportunities, the sky is just the starting line.

Infinity, here we come.

[drnayar]

https://zeenews.india.com/india/isro-ru ... 91831.html

Moscow agrees to a 100% transfer of technology for the powerful RD-191M semi-cryogenic rocket engine to ISRO. This major upgrade will nearly double the LVM3 payload capacity [ GTO ] to 7 tons, fulfilling the Make in India vision for heavy-lift rockets and accelerating the Gaganyaan mission by 2030.

Technical specifications of the RD-191 engine:

Thrust at sea level
196 tons
Thrust in vacuum
212.6 tons
Specific impulse at the sea level
311.2 seconds
Specific impulse in vacuum
337.5 seconds
Height
3,780 millimeters
Diameter
2,100 millimeters
Dry mass
2,200 kilograms
Fueled mass
2,430 kilograms
Combustion chamber pressure
262.6 kilograms per square centimeter


according to the company, the engine could be fired as many as 10 times.

seems there is a bit of history to the deal as well

In the late 1980s, under Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Glavkosmos agreed to a $120 million deal for two cryogenic engines (KVD-1, akin to the RD-56) and full technology transfer to bolster ISRO’s GSLV program. However, immense U.S. pressure—citing violations of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), to which neither nation belonged—forced Russia to renege in 1993. The fallout included sanctions on ISRO and Glavkosmos, leading to a compromise where Russia supplied seven off-the-shelf engines without tech transfer.


i guess the tech transfer can accelerate development of ISRO NGLV systems that can lift about 12 tons to GTO , and also accelerate Indian capabilities for its own Space station

[Rakesh]

Exclusive: India to buy Russia’s ‘RD-191’ semi-cryo rocket engines?
https://www.wionews.com/world/exclusive ... 4774655897
03 Dec 2025

‘RD-191’ is a workhorse engine used in Russia’s Angara series of rockets. ‘RD-191’ is also a throttleable engine, which means that it can significantly reduce or increase its thrust mid-flight, a crucial capability that enables precise flight control, recovery, and reuse of rocket stages.

[V_Raman]

Is this the engine referred to in the Nambi effect movie?

Russia owes many such tech transfers to India from Gorbachev/Yelstin era - we have given them a LOT of money in those times...

[Haridas]

Disappointed by RD-191 Semi-cryo engine Russian deal because it's squarely competing with ISRO's SE2000 engine.

See it as yet another offer to India, after India has suffered the cost and time penalty of developing own technology and capability, with objective to waste indian investment, and demotivate indigenous skill capability and engineering capability (often private company sensitive to risk investment).

I am OK if this results in having a ready to fly engine for couple of years while a new engine with both Roosi and Bharatiya deveop an evolved superior engine.

ISRO needs to be in reusable launcher business right away (at risk of becoming irrelevant), so the throttleable RD191 is a good placeholder.

BTW RD180 (twin chamber, thus 2x thrust version of RD191) was main engine for US launchers since 2000. Till US decided to break Russian strategic cooperation in favour of breaking Russia. Russian knowhow of vastly lighter, simpler and greater thrust engine based on oxidizer rich 2-stage engine was black magic for western engineers.


SpaceX entered frey with few billion $ US govt financial support + free access to all NASA engine knowhow in addition to reverse engineering Russian RD180 knowhow and skill.

See the comparison of RD180 & RD191 here.

Key is 257 bar chamber pressure and ISP : 311

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/compar ... DxOEwINA#0

[drnayar]

@Haridas ., I am inclined to think the ISRO equivalent is still quite a few years away., and looking at a specific focus for a space station., would the RD 191 make more sense than an RD 180 ., to put the building blocks in place to LEO., apparently the 191 has more throttle capability that i assume would be useful ?

i also think the 191 being more "modular" fits into the ISRO NGLV systems ?

[Rudradev]

Astrum YouTube documentary on ISRO's recent successes

[Haridas]

@Haridas ., I am inclined to think the ISRO equivalent is still quite a few years away., and looking at a specific focus for a space station., would the RD 191 make more sense than an RD 180 ., to put the building blocks in place to LEO., apparently the 191 has more throttle capability that i assume would be useful ?

Two main aspects are RD180 is two thust chambered with 400T thrust while RD191is 1 thrust chamber with half the thrust that fits directly into the current rocket system architecture, thus help pull in schedule with a proven engine. And there is lots 9f experience and knowhow diffusion that comes with it. The wide throttle range IMHO is an overkill for booster stage but very useful for second or upperstage to limit acceleration peak when fuel tanks are near empty. Alternatively v useful for reusable stage during recovery trajectory. Again it could be useful for baby steps of NGLV initial missions.

If only we has RD180 availability earlier we could have gone for heavier launchers using its 400T thrust.

i also think the 191 being more "modular" fits into the ISRO NGLV systems ?

Not sure of muduler aspect.

In any case the oxydizer rich design prevents shoot buildup and thus easy refurbishing for reuse.and being a 2 stage preburner design brings In much higher ISP particularly for upper stage.

The high chamber pressure results in good ISP even when used for booster use at higher ambient pressure.

The SemiCryo rocket has much compact fuel tank compared to Methane tank.

[SSridhar]

India targets $45 billion space economy driven by private firms - ET

India is accelerating its space ambitions, targeting a sustained lunar presence within the next decade as part of its broader plan to become a developed economy by 2047.

“By 2035, we’ll have a space station called Bharatiya Antariksh Station and by 2040 hopefully Indian human being landing on the surface of the Moon,” India’s Space Minister Jitendra Singh said in an interview to Bloomberg News in Panchkula, about 260 kilometers from New Delhi, on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has intensified efforts to close the gap with countries such as China, which already operates its own space station and aims to send astronauts to the moon by 2030. India is increasingly turning to private investment to establish itself as a global leader in space technology.

“In space, we had a dismal economy until we opened up to the private sector, and now it has grown to about $8 billion,” Singh said. “The pace of growth is so high that in the next eight to 10 years, we may reach $40–45 billion.”

A large percentage of this target is to be achieved by India’s space startups, which have grown to about 400 now, and are involved in satellite manufacturing, launch services and space-based data analytics.

India aims to capture 8%–10% share of the global commercial space market over the next decade from less than 2% now, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman V. Narayanan had said in August.

India achieved a major milestone in 2023 by becoming the first nation to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon’s south pole. The ISRO is on track for its first crewed mission into space in early 2027, Singh said.

The minister — who has a seat in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for departments including Science, Space, and Atomic Energy — is overseeing Modi’s broader priority of boosting investment in deep-technology sectors.

The government last month announced a 1 trillion-rupee ($11.1 billion) Research, Development and Innovation Scheme to boost private-sector advances in deep-technology sectors through concessional financing. It will finance projects that have a so-called Technology Readiness Level of 4 or above, which means the project is closer to going to market.

[SSridhar]

Isro to launch its heaviest US commercial sat BlueBird-6 on December 15 - ToI

In a boost to Indo-US space cooperation, Isro will launch its heaviest American commercial communication low-earth orbit satellite, the 6.5-tonne BlueBird-6, from the Sriharikota spaceport on Dec 15. Isro’s ‘Bahubali’ rocket LVM3 will put the US satellite into orbit.

AST SpaceMobile, a Texas-based company that has built the space-based cellular broadband network, said, “BlueBird-6, a US licensed satellite, is scheduled to launch on Dec 15. It is the first of AST SpaceMobile’s next-generation satellites. When launched, it will feature the largest commercial phased array in low earth orbit at nearly 2,400 sqft. This represents 3.5 times increase in size over BlueBirds 1-5 and supports ten times the data capacity.”

BlueBird-6 is a “Block-2” satellite and part of a larger plan by AST SpaceMobile to deploy a series of satellites to achieve non-continuous service, with further launches scheduled through 2026. Its aim is to bridge the “digital divide” by offering fast, unhindered direct-to-device mobile broadband service in areas with poor or non-existent terrestrial network coverage.

The BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver a high amount of bandwidth, with each unit capable of up to 10,000 MHz. They operate by partnering with existing mobile network carriers to enhance their networks using licensed spectrum.The BlueBird-6 satellite arrived in India from the US on Oct 19. It was later transported by road to Sriharikota for integration with launcher LVM3, fuelling and final checks ahead of its launch.

The liftoff is being handled by New Space India Limited (NSIL), Isro’s commercial wing. LVM-3 had recently put India’s heaviest CMS-3 satellite, weighing 4.4 tonnes, into its orbit on Nov 2. A three-stage launch vehicle, LVM3 rocket can carry payloads weighing up to 8,000 kg to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and 4,000 kg to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The human-rated version of this vehicle will fly three Indian astronauts to space, as part of the Gaganyaan mission, which is planned for 2027.