New Delhi: With various industrial groups interested in producing and flying ISRO’s most powerful LVM3 rocket, popularly referred to as ‘Bahubali’, the space sector is seeing increasing interest from major industrial players.
Several companies, such as Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Adani Group, JSW, Mahindra Group, Bharat Forge, Solar Industries and Inox India, are looking into this. Space startups are also being explored for partnership to participate in the technology-transfer programme by some companies.
The LVM3 is ISRO’s heaviest operational launch vehicle that can lift satellites weighing in around four tonnes. The rocket has already flown on to high-profile missions such as the Chandrayaan-3 mission. The technology has also been proven to be attractive to Companies that are considering entering or growing their market share for commercial space launch.
The technology transfer programme, as proposed, will give the selected company/consortium access to ISRO’s technical information for producing, launching and commercialising LVM3. This encompasses rocket design, propulsion, avionics and navigation, manufacturing, testing and launch operations.
The move falls under ISRO’s umbrella initiative to enable private firms to take on more mundane work of rocket building and launching. That would leave more resources for the space agency to work on cutting edge technologies and deep space operations. India has already made such moves with transfer of technology for the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).
It’s also coinciding with the surge of demand for satellite launches overseas, as big Indian firms are looking to diversify their footprints overseas. The interest from the Indian companies is also coming at a time when demands for satellite launches around the world have been on a rise. India is striving to increase its presence in space sector in the global market and is also anticipated to have a strong growth in its domestic space economy in the near future.
This is just the expression of interest phase there is still a phase for bidding. This is just the phase of the expression of interest, there is a phase for bidding, too. The detailed technical and commercial conditions will be considered before companies make final bids. Formal bidding is anticipated later and the winner of the bid is expected to collaborate with ISRO and IN-SPACe in the future to build the rocket on its own.
The development is significant in the context of India’s emerging private space industry and potentially lend a hand to indigenous companies to gain greater importance in the global launch marketplace.
