ISRO missions 2023: Indian Space Agency plans mega science missions this year, details here

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to shift its focus from space applications to scientific studies in 2023 with the launch of the sun- and moon-specific missions Aditya and Chandrayaan-3, respectively, despite the expected growth of the young start-up industry.

India's first manned space trip, the Gaganyaan project, will also begin a series of tests in 2023, with the first uncrewed mission scheduled for the fourth quarter of that year to verify the effectiveness of the launch vehicle, orbital module's propulsion system, and the recovery procedures.

According to Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh's parliamentary testimony this month, ISRO intends to undertake the maiden runway landing experiment (RLV-LEX) of the reusable launch vehicle early next year at Aeronautical Test Range in Karnataka's Chitradurga.

Suborbital flight by Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-S rocket, the first by a private sector company, and the launches of Pixxel's hyperspectral satellites Shakuntala, on SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket in April, and Anand, onboard ISRO's PSLV rocket in November, were harbingers of the arrival of the new generation of Indian start-ups.

Both Agnikul Cosmos, a startup established on the IIT-Madras campus, and Skyroot Aerospace, which launched India's first privately produced rocket in November, have scheduled the test flight of their highly customizable Agnibaan rockets for early next year.

Ahmed predicted that several additional rocket firms throughout the world would achieve their first orbital launches, leading to a "game of thrones" in which these businesses would compete for the same group of clients who would be launching satellites into orbit.

Startups are proposing to send tourists into space, create rockets to launch tiny satellites, find cheaper fuels for satellites, and carve out a position in the earth imaging sector—all of which were formerly the exclusive purview of ISRO.

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DhruvaSpace's Thybolt 1 and 2 satellites, which were launched on ISRO's PSLV C-54 mission, proved that amateur satellite communication is possible, which would benefit ham radio operations.

According to Surapureddy, DhurvaSpace has already secured its first commercial contract to construct satellites in the amount of 20 crore.

ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota is where Agnikul officially opened its first launchpad and mission control centre.

An Indian space expert, Chaitanya Giri of Research and Information System for Developing Countries, has drawn parallels between the brashness of the Indian space industry and the style of play shown by Sourav Ganguly's cricket squad.

Indian start-ups, he argued, should instead compete for contracts abroad and not rely on ISRO.

(With inputs from PTI)