India’s new space policy says participation of private players in end-to-end services is set to rise, a role that ISRO solely fulfilled until a couple of years ago

New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation’s commercial arm NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) has called for bids from private partners for the large-scale production of India’s trusted workhorse, Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-3).

NSIL released a request for qualification (RFQ) Friday, inviting responses from potential bidders to produce the launcher LVM-3. The idea behind bringing private players on board is to increase the production of the launch vehicle over the next few years, in line with India’s plans to scale up commercial launches.

According to an NSIL statement, the global launch service market assessment indicates substantial demand for launching communication satellites in the geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) and satellites for Mega constellations in the low Earth orbit (LEO).

“With a successful track record of seven launches so far, LVM-3 has great potential and opportunity to capture this niche global launch service market,” the statement read.

In 2023, LVM3 entered the global commercial launch service market, successfully launching 72 satellites for UK-based OneWebin in two separate missions from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

“As part of this RFQ, NSIL would technically qualify and shortlist multiple Indian industry partners… A single Indian industry partner would be selected to execute the envisaged LVM-III production programme with NSIL,” Friday’s statement added.

LVM3 is a three-stage launch vehicle with two solid strap-on motors (S200), a liquid core stage (L110) and a high-thrust cryogenic upper stage (C25). Its strap-on motor is among the largest solid boosters in the world with 204 tonnes of solid propellant.

With an impeccable track record, LVM-3 has been the launch vehicle for some of ISRO’s most high-profile launches, including the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Last year, India created history by becoming the first country in the world to land near the south pole of the moon.

It also joined the list of the only three other countries to ever make a lunar landing. Before India, only the US, the former USSR and China had achieved the feat. The mission was launched on LVM-3-M4, also dubbed as ‘fat boy’ for its ability to carry heavy payloads.

The move is also in line with India’s new space policy, which opened up the country’s space sector to private companies. The policy mentions that the participation of private players is set to increase in the coming years for end-to-end services, a role that ISRO solely fulfilled until a couple of years ago. In 2022, NSIL engaged the HAL and L&T consortia for the production of five Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLVs).

“This laid the foundation for the Indian industries to graduate from being mere suppliers, vendors of subsystems, and systems, to assume the bigger responsibility of the overall system integrator for the end-to-end realization of PSLV,” NSIL said.

NSIL said that in the coming years, Indian industries will be enabled to scale up high-technology manufacturing and production to meet the needs of the global space program.

(With Agency Inputs)