Explore Business Standard
ISRO
Space agency ISRO has successfully conducted the second integrated air drop test (IADT-02) for the upcoming Gaganyaan mission at the space station in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota. The system is essential to ensure safe recovery of the crew module -- the capsule in which astronauts sit during a human flight -- during re-entry and landing. Union Minister Jitendra Singh congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for successfully conducting the test. "Congratulations #ISRO for the successful accomplishment of Second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) for #Gaganyaan, India's first Human Space flight scheduled next year. The second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) was successfully conducted at Satish Dhawan Space Station Sriharikota," Singh said in a post on X. The IADT-02 follows the successful completion of the first IADT, which took place on August 24, 2025 at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Air drop tests recreate the last leg of a spacecraft's retu
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Thursday that it is inviting proposals from the Indian solar physics community to access data from the Aditya-L1 mission, the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun. This is the second such formal call from ISRO for Indian scientists to access the Aditya-L1 mission data; the first call was made in January. "At present, there are over 27 TB of data in the public domain, and several important scientific results have been published in international peer-reviewed journals. To further maximise the scientific return from this unique mission, the ISRO has released the second Announcement of Opportunity (AO) inviting proposals from the Indian solar physics community for Aditya-L1 observation time," the ISRO said in a statement. Proposals can be submitted by Indian scientists and researchers based at institutes, universities, or colleges in India. The applicants should be involved in research in the area of solar science a
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday detailed its on-orbit observations of the NVS-02 spacecraft and the recommendations made by an Apex Committee constituted to review the issue that affected its orbit-raising operations. NVS-02, the second spacecraft in the NVS series, was injected into an elliptical transfer orbit on January 29, 2025, following its launch aboard GSLV-F15. NVS-02 was injected successfully into the elliptical transfer orbit of 170x37,785 km with 20.8 degree inclination at 00:53 UT, ISRO said in a statement. The spacecraft was separated from the launch vehicle at 01:12:08 UT, after which a series of autonomous activities on the satellite were carried out, including the solar panel deployment and stabilising the orientation for power generation, it said. "However, the orbit raising operations from the elliptical to circular orbit could not be carried out," it said. An Apex Committee was subsequently formed to examine the observations and recom
India's space missions like Chandrayaan and Aditya-L1 are not just technological achievements but a modern expression that ancient scientific spirit has always been a part of our cultural identity, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said here on Sunday. At the inauguration of the Maha Shivaratri celebrations organised at the Isha Yoga Center, headed by Sadhguru, here, he said Sun and the Moon are not just celestial bodies, but form the basis of our calendar and festivals. "Our fasts, festivals and auspicious timings are determined through precise scientific calculations. Today, missions like Chandrayaan and other space programmes are modern expressions of our ancient scientific heritage, where tradition and technology move forward together" he said. "When India launches missions like Chandrayaan (Moon mission), Mangalyaan (Mars) and Aditya-L1 (Sun), it is not just a technological achievement, it is also modern expression of that ancient spirit which has always been part of our cultural
ISRO on Saturday said that NISAR is systematically imaging the Indian landmass in S-and L-bands to deliver high-resolution and wide swath data with a repetivity of 12 days. This data has been effectively utilised to demonstrate the generation of soil-moisture products at a high resolution of 100m, it said. Being a key indicator of crop health, irrigation needs and drought risk, soil-moisture plays a vital role in India's agriculture and water management, the space agency said. According to a ISRO statement, the soil-moisture products, demonstrated using both S-and L-bands data, provide consistent estimates across India's diverse agro-climatic regions - from irrigated plains and rainfed farmlands to semi-arid and high-rainfall zones. The physics-based soil moisture retrieval algorithm, developed at Space Applications Centre (SAC-ISRO), ensures scientific robustness, reliability, and operational accuracy, it said. "With the ability to deliver two observations every 12 days, NASA-ISR
NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Department of Space, will resell the products of Bengaluru-based private space technology company GalaxEye under an agreement signed by the two entities, officials said on Saturday. The products include advanced satellite imagery solutions, such as SyncFused OptoSAR data products, which are designed to deliver insights across critical sectors, including agriculture, disaster management, and natural resource management. "Collaborating with NSIL allows us to bring advanced Earth observation capabilities to a wider set of users while contributing to India's strategic and developmental priorities," Suyash Singh, co-founder and CEO of GalaxEye Space. According to officials, the agreement made GalaxEye the first private Indian satellite operator to formally collaborate with NSIL under a data reseller partnership agreement. "Beyond commercial impact, the reseller agreement is a milestone in India's space policy, where government bod
India must continue to pursue its ambitious human spaceflight programme with sustained enthusiasm despite inherent complexities and unknowns, Group Captain and Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla said on Wednesday. The Ashoka Chakra awardee asserted that the success of Mission Gaganyaan will place the country among a select group of spacefaring nations. Addressing reporters here, he said, "I think, as a nation, what we are trying to do with Mission Gaganyaan has only been done by three other countries in the world." India aims to launch Gaganyaan in 2027, according to ISRO. Group Captain Shukla is among the four astronauts selected for the mission. "These are very complex and challenging missions. We are trying to do something so audacious, whatever time it takes, we need to continue to work towards it with the same enthusiasm that I had on day one, and that will be there on the final day when we finally launch humans into space," he added. The Indian astronaut acknowledged that de
ISRO Chairman V Narayanan on Tuesday said that India's space programme was conceived as a people-centric and application-driven initiative, rooted in international cooperation rather than competition. Highlighting six decades of the country's space journey, Narayanan said the programme had evolved from modest beginnings into a globally respected ecosystem that serves not just India but the international community, with collaboration as its core philosophy. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the US-India Space Business Forum, the ISRO chief noted the contribution of USA in India's space programme. Space-related activity in India started in 1962, 15 years after the independence and the first rocket India launched was made in the US and supplied by NASA. Narayanan underlined that the Indian space mission is mainly for the benefit of people. "The Indian space programme was started not to compete with anybody but to bring advanced space technology for the benefit of the common man o
The Chandrayaan-4 Mission is at least two years away, but the ISRO has identified a location in the South Polar region of Moon to land its lander. The union government has approved the Chandrayaan-4 mission, designed as a lunar sample-return mission and it will be India's most complex lunar endeavour yet. "We are targeting 2028 for Chandrayaan-4," ISRO chairman V Narayanan had earlier said. According to ISRO officials, they had zeroed in on four sites of the Mons Mouton (MM) and found one of them suitable for landing on the lunar surface. Mons Mouton is a region on the Moon. Officials said they had identified locations -- MM-1, MM-3, MM-4 and MM-5. Of them, MM-4 was chosen for the landing. "The four sites in Mons Mouton area were fully characterised with respect to terrain characteristics using high resolution Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC) multi view image datasets," they said. It was found that one kilometre by one kilometre area around MM-4 contains "the less hazard ..
ISRO is working towards the first uncrewed mission of its ambitious Gaganyaan Mission scheduled for 2027, Chairman V Narayanan has said. The Gaganyaan mission is India's first human spaceflight programme currently under development. It aims to send a three-member crew on a three-day mission to space and bring them back safely to Earth. "Gaganyaan programme is planned in 2027. Before that, three uncrewed missions are planned. We are working towards the first uncrewed mission," he told reporters late Friday. To a query, he said, currently scientists were engaged in conducting a lot of tests for the mission to achieve success. "There are lots of tests happening. You know safety of the Gaganyatri is very, very important. So, we have to be very careful. We have to qualify every system. In the rocket system, we have to score one hundred out of one hundred," he said. "Our aim is that (success of Gaganyaan). We have to do a perfect job. We are working towards that," he said. On the PSLV-
ISRO on Saturday said its Aditya-L1 solar mission has provided new insights into how a powerful solar storm can impact Earth's magnetic shield. "The most severe effects occurred during the impact of the turbulent region of the solar storm, the space agency said in a statement. In a breakthrough study published in the Astrophysical Journal in December 2025, ISRO scientists and research students analysed a major space weather event that struck Earth in October 2024. The study used observations from Aditya-L1, India's first solar observatory, along with data from other international space missions to decode the impact of a massive eruption of solar plasma from the Sun. Space weather refers to conditions in space caused by transient activity on the Sun, such as solar plasma eruptions, which can affect satellites, communication and navigation services, and power grid infrastructure on Earth, the statement said. According to ISRO, the turbulent region of the solar storm strongly compres