Waiting for GSLV

ISRO yet to break into the big leagues, commercially

The Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, completed two important missions in July. It operationalised the GAGAN, which is a global positioning system (GPS) aided geo-augmented navigation system. GAGAN will provide air navigation services over the Bay of Bengal, South East Asia, the Indian Ocean, West Asia and Africa. Last week, ISRO also launched five commercial British satellites with a total mass of 1,440 kg in its heaviest commercial launch till date. The space agency has delivered many successes in the past. The most spectacular were the Chandrayaan moon mission in 2008, and the ongoing Mars Orbiter Mission, when ISRO became the only space agency to place a craft in orbit around Mars in its very first attempt. Last year also saw the launch of the solar-powered GSAT-14 (Geosynchronous Satellite-14), which replaces the ageing GSAT-3. That GSAT-14 launch featured the test run of a cryogenic engine. There was also one successful launch of the GSLV-III rocket with a larger cryogenic engine.

Much has been made of the agency's frugality and ability to build technology on a shoestring. But this is a penny-wise, pound-foolish approach, given the stated aims of ISRO and the magnitude of potential returns. ISRO has ambitions to become a big player in the commercial satellite market, apart from nurturing grand plans for manned orbital and space missions. This is in addition to the enormous contribution it makes in enabling communications and broadcasting, weather research, mapping and so on. The commercial arm, Antrix sells a smorgasbord of services and data in those domains, and also offers assistance in satellite design.

But technology for the key GSLV platform has not yet stabilised. GSLV can launch heavier satellites of up to 4,000 kg while the GSLV-III under development could ramp capacity up to around 6,000 kg. This is crucial if ISRO is to be taken seriously as a commercial player. There have been multiple launches with payloads exceeding 4,000 kg by many agencies over the last decade. The heaviest commercial satellite developed, the Terrestar-1, has a mass of nearly 7,000 kg. ISRO can currently handle only a fifth of that. The challenge lies in stabilising cryogenic technology. The GSLV was originally developed with borrowed Russian engines. Development of an indigenous cryogenic engine and the associated control systems has been slow. As a result, there has been a reliance on the dated technology of the PSLV (Polar satellite launch vehicle), which lacks power. The Mars mission for instance, needed a complicated slingshot manoeuvre, using gravity to build momentum, because the PSLV could not directly take a spacecraft to Mars. The recent British launch also involved a PSLV operating at its capacity limit.

Cryogenic technology is dual-use and being able to deploy it doesn't hurt given the sensitivity of India's strategic environment. The sooner a stable cryogenic platform is developed, the better. Reportedly, the GSLV-III will need at least two more launches before it can be relied on, and ISRO must then move onto developing even bigger launch vehicles. It would make eminent commercial sense to give ISRO the financial wherewithal to do the R&D as fast as possible.