New Delhi, Aug 02: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh on Wednesday said India is the fifth amongst space-faring nations having end-to-end capabilities in space research and development.
“India also has the capability to launch from our own land and operate programs of earth observation, satellite communication, meteorology, space science & navigation and ground infrastructure,” he said while briefing the Lok Sabha about India’s top ranking in space.
In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Dr Singh informed that right now new space industries are also emerging at a fast pace after space sector reforms. He listed significant progress made by ISRO during the last five years. He said 27 satellites and 22 Launch Vehicle missions have been successfully accomplished during the period (July 2018 – July 2023), besides the successful Pad Abort Test (PAT) to qualify the Crew Escape System (CES) in July 2018 and the Reusable Launch Vehicle autonomous landing mission in April 2023.
In June 2018, India announced a capacity-building training programme UNNATI (UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training by ISRO) on Nanosatellites development through a combination of theoretical coursework and hands-on training on Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT), he said, adding, “A total of 90 participants from 45 countries benefited from the program across three batches (two in 2019 and 1 in 2022). India’s second mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully launched on July 22, 2019 on-board GSLV Mk III-M1. Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter is providing valuable science data for the research community.”
“The launch of PSLV-C48/ RISAT-2BR1 in December 2019 marked the 50th launch of PSLV, the workhorse launch vehicle. In 2019, ISRO launched an annual special programme called “Young Scientist Programme” or the “YUva VIgyani KAryakram” (YUVIKA), in line with the Government’s vision “Jai Vigyan, Jai Anusandhan”. A total of 603 students have attended the YUVIKA program spread over 3 years – 2019, 2022 and 2023,” the minister said.
In 2019, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) got incorporated, as a wholly-owned Government of India Undertaking/ Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE), under the administrative control of Department of Space (DOS), Dr Singh said, adding, “On June 26, 2020, the Government of India announced Space Sector Reforms – a major transformation of Indian Space Sector with enhanced participation of private players in Indian space programme and playing key roles to boost India’s market share in Global Space Economy.”
The establishment of IN-SPACe was announced in June 2020 by Government of India. IN-SPACe Headquarters at Ahmedabad was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in June 2022, Dr Jitendra said. The Minister of State (Department of Space) dedicated the ISRO System for Safe & Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS4OM) to the nation in July 2022.
LVM3 (GSLV MkIII) M2/OneWeb India-1 Mission was successfully accomplished on 23rd October 2022, the minister said. He also highlighted the launch of Vikram-S (Prarambh mission), the successful flight of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV – D2), NSIL successfully executing its contract to launch 72 satellites of OneWeb to Low Earth Orbit.
