ISRO’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle to be Produced by Industry Consortium

India is the second NewSpace hub after California : Jean-Yves Le Gall, CNES

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is developing a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) that can carry satellites weighing 500 to 700kg to up to 500 kilometres.

“We are in the process of making a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle which can carry 500–700 kg satellite to 500 km Low Earth Orbit(LEO). This will not be like PSLV or GSLV. The total integration should take place in 72 hours. It will be an autonomous vehicle. Because it is autonomous it is amenable for production very easily,” said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Dr. Kailasavadivoo Sivan. According to him around 50–60 vehicles will need to be produced per year.

The 6th Bangalore Space Expo BSX 2018 | Source: Redact

ISRO is putting all its thrust towards making the Indian Human Spaceflight Program a reality by 2022. “Gaganyaan going to increase S&T levels in the country. Lot of industries are going to take part in this. A lot of the infrastructure is going to be built by industry. The program is a boost to ISRO’s technical capability. ISRO is going to spend most of the time only on this activity — all 17000 people. All other activities should be taken care of by the industry,” he said.

“The satellite industry is today undergoing a veritable revolution. Where satellites once tipped the scales at several tonnes, they now weigh no more than a few hundred or even tens of kilograms. Following in the wake of electric propulsion, new optical telecommunications and artificial intelligence systems are set to usher in a new era in satellite technologies. We are investigating what others are doing and developing what’s best for our missions, industry and ecosystem,” said Jean-Yves Le Gall, President, Centre Nationale d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France.

“Small satellites are going to make a big impact for domestic life. They are now coming in to the market because of cost optimization. Whatever large satellites can do, can easily be done by small satellites. They will have a big role in communications. There can be upto 11000 satellites in low earth orbit,” he added.

“If ISRO is spending all the energy on this we will be doing only this one. We want to give this vehicle to industry. Antrix is already working on this,” said Dr. K. Sivan.

In the development phase of the SSLV, ISRO will do the design, realisation and flight demonstration while Antrix will conduct market studies, RFQ & partner industry identification and interface with industry for value engineering.

In the technology-transfer phase, ISRO will be the design authority taking care of mission authorisation and quality assurance while Antrix will focus on end-to-end vehicle realisation through industries and explore hand-holding in launch operations.

In the production phase, ISRO will be solely in charge of mission authorisation while Antrix and private industry will work in a risk sharing participatory model.

Currently an RFP is being prepared to identify partner industries. Techno-Commercial reviews will follow the RFQ.

Increased role of Private Enterprise

Dr. Sivan said that the participation of industry in ISRO’s activities was increasing. ISRO is setting up 6 incubation centres across the country which can be made use of by small industries and startups.

“There is a demand for 13–14 PSLVs every year. This should be made by industry. Many industries are coming into a consortium. One year from now we will be rolling out PSLV from industry. By BSX 2020, private industry will be producing PSLV, Small Satellite Launch vehicles and satellites,” said Dr. Sivan.

The central government has committed Rs. 10,469 crores to build 40 rockets over the next five years (2019–2024) — 30 PSLVs and 10 GSLV Mach 3s. “Of this more than Rs. 9000 crores will go to industries,” said Dr. Sivan.

“ISRO has 45 satellites as space assets right now. In the next three years we are supposed to launch 59 satellites. From 6–7 launches a year we will scale up to 2 launches per month. Several lakhs of items will have to be produced in these three years,” he added.

He urged industries to step forward and partner with ISRO to make its missions possible in the shortest possible time.

Indo-French Collaboration

Space cooperation between France and India has reached the level of a strategic partnership. It may be also be recalled that France was the first country to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India.

“Ariane 5 and Vega, GSLV and PSLV are today the best launchers in the world, but to stay competitive we must start preparing the technologies for our future launchers now. This is also where the partnership between our NewSpace players is very important,” said Jean-Yves Le Gall, President, Centre Nationale d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France, who was the chief guest at the Bangalore Space Expo BSX 2018.

“At CNES, as at ISRO, we get that we can only win by taking our inspiration from the daring young generations who are devising bold solutions, even if sometimes they don’t yet have the influence to accomplish them. We have both set up programmes to boost and fund NewSpace players, and we are now working to forge closer ties between our French and Indian ecosystems.

Because the fraternal spirit of trust that we have built between CNES and ISRO must serve as an inspiration for our industries, who in turn will gain from leveraging their complementary know-how,” he added.

I am delighted to see that Antrix is building 5 partnerships with French manufacturers. That is precisely the point of what I want to say to you here to today, and to our big manufacturers, start-ups and established firms. CNES and ISRO will always be there to give you the technical support you need. Combining today’s agencies with tomorrow’s industry associations and start-ups is in many ways the best of both worlds.

The recent dramatic events in Kerala remind us that monitoring our climate and striving to understand climate change is not just a matter of our well-being, it is a question of survival. And space is the only tool capable of providing the global, continuous picture vital for both prevention and cure. This challenge has significantly shifted the role of space agencies, making climate actions a key priority.

In instigating the New Delhi Declaration together in 2016, CNES and ISRO took the initiative to federate space stakeholders around the globe to tackle climate change, and more than 60 space agencies signed up to this effort behind France and India.

With the MicroCarb carbon dioxide and MERLIN methane monitoring missions in development at CNES, we will acquire the ability to gauge greenhouse gas emissions. In India, your resource monitoring satellite programme is stepping up a gear with numerous missions set to launch in the years ahead. Together, CNES and ISRO began developing more than 15 years ago a fleet of French-Indian satellites dedicated to climate applications. Megha-Tropiques and SARAL-AItiKa are delivering precious operational information for forecasting monsoons and managing drinking water. The French-Indian Trishna infrared remote-sensing mission currently in development will add to the range of applications that are going to prove vital to our societies.

A joint constellation of ocean-surveying satellites directed by President Macron and Prime Minister Modi is under study. And ISRO will be launching in 2019 the Oceansat 3 satellite carrying CNES’s Argos instrument to collect environmental data and track wildlife. Here again, by joining forces, spacefaring France and India are clocking up successes and leading the way for the rest of the world.

Innovation is accomplished through partnership and by sharing perspectives and methods. Our teams are willing to compare ideas in a spirit of full transparency, as only real friends can do. We are already doing this for satellites, launchers and planetary exploration, and today I can announce that we will be doing the same for human spaceflight.

Immediately after this opening ceremony, ISRO’s Chairman and I will be signing an implementing arrangement through which France will bring India the full benefit of its experience in space crew transport. This arrangement will notably encompass space medicine and crew life support, two fields in which our teams are among the best in the world, as we showed last year with the Proxima mission by a French astronaut on the International Space Station. But we will also be able to talk about launchers. Our teams are excited at the prospect of supporting and learning from India through this exceptional challenge that is set to mark the history of space in decades to come.