As India eyes its own space station by 2035, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has proposed industry to work with it to develop a reusable rocket capable of carrying heavier payloads into orbit. Dubbed the Next-Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV), ISRO Chairman S Somanath said the space agency is working on the design of the rocket and would like industry to work with it in its development.
“The intention is to involve industry in the development process. We don’t have to invest all the money. We want the industry to invest in making this rocket for all of us,” Somanath told. He said the rocket is planned to carry 10 tons of cargo to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or 20 tons to low Earth orbit. Another ISRO official said the new rocket would be useful as India plans to have its own space station by 2035 and is also looking at deep space missions, human spaceflight, cargo missions and sending multiple communication satellites into orbit simultaneously.
The NGLV is conceived as a simple, robust machine designed for mass production that will make space transportation more efficient. Somanath said the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), ISRO’s war rocket, was based on technology developed in the 1980s and could not be used to launch rockets in the future. ISRO plans to have the NGLV design ready within a year and offer it to industry for production, with the first launch tentatively scheduled for 2030.
The NGLV could be a three-stage rocket powered by combinations of green fuel such as methane and liquid oxygen or kerosene and liquid oxygen. According to Somanath’s presentation at a conference earlier this month, NGLV could offer a launch cost of $1,900 per kg of payload in reusable form and $3,000 per kg in consumable format.
India’s space economy was pegged at US$9.6 billion (about ₹78,996 crore) in 2020 and is expected to reach US$12.8 billion (about ₹1,05,328 crore) by 2025, according to an ISpA-E&Y report titled “Cosmic Ecosystem Development”. India: Focusing on Inclusive Growth”.
In dollar terms, the satellite services and applications segment would be the largest with a turnover of US$ 4.6 billion (approx. ₹ 37,852 crore) by 2025, followed by the terrestrial segment with US$ 4 billion (approx. ₹ 32,915 crore), satellite manufacturing with 3.2 USD billion (approx. ₹ 26,332 crore) and launching services for USD 1 billion (approx. ₹ 8,229 crore). India’s share in the startup services segment has been pegged at $600 million (around ₹4,937 crore) in 2020 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 13 percent to reach $1 billion by 2025, the report said.
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