ISRO to shift launch vehicle manufacturing to private sector entirely

ISRO will eventually stop manufacturing launch vehicles altogether, shifting the work entirely to private industry, IN-SPACe Chairman Pawan Kumar Goenka has announced.

“Eventually, ISRO will not make any launch vehicles and will not manufacture any launch vehicles,” Goenka said, describing a structural change already under way in India’s space sector.

Under the new model, ISRO will focus on advanced technologies, scientific missions and research, alongside developing specialised satellites for particular orbits and scientific work.

Manufacturing of launch vehicles, satellites and other routine production will move to private companies, extending a shift that has already seen the SSLV programme transferred to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

The announcement lands as India observes National Space Day today, marking the anniversary of Chandrayaan-3’s historic soft landing on the Moon’s south pole in 2023.

This year’s National Space Day theme is ‘Towards Viksit Bharat — Innovating, Collaborating and Aspiring to Global Space Leadership,’ underscoring the push toward greater private-sector participation.

The SSLV, ISRO’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, has already been transitioned to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, with HAL’s first SSLV launch expected in September 2027 from a new independent space launch centre.

Future transfers to the private sector will include the PSLV and LVM3 rockets, with upcoming bids for that manufacturing work set to exclude public sector companies.

ISRO has already transferred more than 120 technologies to private industry as part of this broader restructuring of India’s space sector.

The restructuring is aimed at expanding India’s space economy from around $8 billion currently to a targeted $44 billion by 2033.

National Space Day, observed every August 23, commemorates the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s south pole in 2023, a feat that made India only the fourth country to achieve a soft lunar landing.

The announcement was made by IN-SPACe Chairman Pawan Kumar Goenka at Business Today’s India @ 100 Economy Summit on August 21.

Photo by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0