ISRO General News and Updates

[Swesh]

my problem was that they have gotten slower since the pandemic for I don't know what reason.is there something i don't know that is happening internally.are they not utilizing resources efficiently,is there a lackof budget,why are they not resuming pslv launches in atleast 8-10 rockets per year like before.shouldn't the advances they made in facilites increase the frequency.i can see why for 1 and a half years this was fine,but even now they are not going back to old ways.

I just have one answer to this question undertimate of resources especially manpower and finance whole hsf program needed seprate project and seprate manpower and finance solely concentrated on hsf which means seprate budget for isro regular activities and separate for hsf projects. I predicted this on very Eve of announcement of hsf project

 

[omaebakabaka]

my problem was that they have gotten slower since the pandemic for I don't know what reason.is there something i don't know that is happening internally.are they not utilizing resources efficiently,is there a lackof budget,why are they not resuming pslv launches in atleast 8-10 rockets per year like before.shouldn't the advances they made in facilites increase the frequency.i can see why for 1 and a half years this was fine,but even now they are not going back to old ways.

We should not get fooled by "indigenous" label....there are probably enough dependancies on imports in supply chains and ISRO may be hoarding them until its sorted out around the world for those occasions where we have to do launches in security interests or emergencies. Just my guess out of thin air....

 

[Anibesh acharya]

ISRO and Hughes launch India's first commercial satellite broadband service

ISRO and Hughes launch India's first commercial satellite broadband service

Hughes Communications India (HCI) in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Monday officially launched its first high throughput satellite (HTS) broadband internet service in the country. The company had been testing its operation in North India for the last year.

www.wionews.com

 

[Vamsi]

I just have one answer to this question undertimate of resources especially manpower and finance whole hsf program needed seprate project and seprate manpower and finance solely concentrated on hsf which means seprate budget for isro regular activities and separate for hsf projects. I predicted this on very Eve of announcement of hsf project

Gaganyaan's budget is indeed separate from ISRO's main budget

 

[TopWatcher]

Lets hope pvt startups do something.

ISRO working like normal govt office. For around 2 year just 3-4 launches. No much expectation.

Does old satellite doesn't require replacement in space ?

 

[Vamsi]

Latest updates

Semi-cryo upgraded GSLV-MK3 delayed to 2026

Next Gen Launch Vehicle

Gaganyaan derived Space tourism vehicle

RTG

Space based ASAT

 

[Okabe Rintarou]

Latest updates

Semi-cryo upgraded GSLV-MK3 delayed to 2026
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Next Gen Launch Vehicle
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Gaganyaan derived Space tourism vehicle
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RTG
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Space based ASAT
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Good to see PS4 being used for our more practical ASAT capability development: co-orbital killer sats. (although they have announced this before as well)

But I seriously hope they aren't going to go for Methalox based Reusable HLV from the get go. Given how long we will have to wait for a Methalox reusable engine of this class, isn't it better to rely on the SCE-200 for now?

Also, no mention of a Gaganyaan roadmap beyond Space Station. Although they have loosely stated Moon and Mars, I was hoping they'll start looking at what kind of Moon Rocket they are thinking of. Maybe they are waiting to firm up the Reusable HLV design first......but still they should start at least planning it now.

 

[Vamsi]

Good to see PS4 being used for our more practical ASAT capability development: co-orbital killer sats. (although they have announced this before as well)

But I seriously hope they aren't going to go for Methalox based Reusable HLV from the get go. Given how long we will have to wait for a Methalox reusable engine of this class, isn't it better to rely on the SCE-200 for now?

Also, no mention of a Gaganyaan roadmap beyond Space Station. Although they have loosely stated Moon and Mars, I was hoping they'll start looking at what kind of Moon Rocket they are thinking of. Maybe they are waiting to firm up the Reusable HLV design first......but still they should start at least planning it now.

SCE-200 is not practical for this kind of RLV. It will have high payload penalty because of Low ISP. Also it many not have deep throttling capacity, because it wasn't designed for it from day one. It was designed for a winged rlv not this retro propulsion rlv

 

[Vamsi]

Good to see PS4 being used for our more practical ASAT capability development: co-orbital killer sats. (although they have announced this before as well)

But I seriously hope they aren't going to go for Methalox based Reusable HLV from the get go. Given how long we will have to wait for a Methalox reusable engine of this class, isn't it better to rely on the SCE-200 for now?

Also, no mention of a Gaganyaan roadmap beyond Space Station. Although they have loosely stated Moon and Mars, I was hoping they'll start looking at what kind of Moon Rocket they are thinking of. Maybe they are waiting to firm up the Reusable HLV design first......but still they should start at least planning it now.

ISRO is using CE-20 as a test bed for Methalox engine, so based on the data they get from this engine,they may develop an engine in the thrust range of Vikas. That thrust is enough for a Falcon-9 class rocket.We don't need 2000KN engine.

 

[Okabe Rintarou]

SCE-200 is not practical for this kind of RLV. It will have high payload penalty because of Low ISP. Also it many not have deep throttling capacity, because it wasn't designed for it from day one. It was designed for a winged rlv not this retro propulsion rlv

ISRO is using CE-20 as a test bed for Methalox engine, so based on the data they get from this engine,they may develop an engine in the thrust range of Vikas. That thrust is enough for a Falcon-9 class rocket.We don't need 2000KN engine.

SCE-200 and Merlin have similar enough specific impulse. As for deep throttling, yes it won't go down to 40% but SCE-200 can throttle down to 60%. Rest, clustering should take care of it. And ISRO did say they are designing it with reusability upgrades in mind.

No matter, even if SCE-200 isn't fit for the job, continue to develop the methalox but in the meantime, they shouldn't abandon existing plans of HLV based on cluster of 4 or 5 SCE-200.

Also, we need SCE-200 class methalox if we want to build a Starship-Superheavy kind of stack. Raptor is similar thrust and specific impulse. And if we ever build a Moon rocket, it would make a lot of sense to go down the Starship-Superheavy route instead of the Saturn-V and SLS route. Even the Chinese realized this and have now modified design of the Long March 9.

 

[omaebakabaka]

Good to see PS4 being used for our more practical ASAT capability development: co-orbital killer sats. (although they have announced this before as well)

But I seriously hope they aren't going to go for Methalox based Reusable HLV from the get go. Given how long we will have to wait for a Methalox reusable engine of this class, isn't it better to rely on the SCE-200 for now?

Also, no mention of a Gaganyaan roadmap beyond Space Station. Although they have loosely stated Moon and Mars, I was hoping they'll start looking at what kind of Moon Rocket they are thinking of. Maybe they are waiting to firm up the Reusable HLV design first......but still they should start at least planning it now.

"Reusable" like Buran or Shuttle is one thing but I am not sure if first stage reuse is really that beneficial (exploring tech is never a bad idea as there will always be some niche areas that can leverage) instead making it cheap and simple and recyclable is probably more useful. I don't believe in American marketing hypes, no doubt needs to be explored but not sure if its the key though.

 

[TopWatcher]

Lot of technology development going on.

Lagta hai jan ISRO sab bana lengi tab launches ki frequency bade gi

 

[Varoon2]

^ Good, but right now it would be nice to hear updates about One Web and Oceansat-3. What are the dates of their launches, even approximately.

 

[Swesh]

^ Good, but right now it would be nice to hear updates about One Web and Oceansat-3. What are the dates of their launches, even approximately.

October launch

 

[Okabe Rintarou]

"Reusable" like Buran or Shuttle is one thing but I am not sure if first stage reuse is really that beneficial (exploring tech is never a bad idea as there will always be some niche areas that can leverage) instead making it cheap and simple and recyclable is probably more useful. I don't believe in American marketing hypes, no doubt needs to be explored but not sure if its the key though.

Agreed that we shouldn't blindly follow them, but SpaceX has managed to bring launch costs down to below ISRO's launch costs while hiring only Americans. That is the proof of the pudding. And if Starship Superheavy stack can achieve even half of what they aim to do with it, it will be rather impressive compared to the likes of Saturn V and SLS.
Ofcourse there is a lot that the headline figures of launch costs don't tell because they assume a lot of things like complete utilization of payload fairing volume and launch vehicle lift capacity, standard orbit, etc.
ISRO doesn't seem to be blindly following this route either. They are still thinking of upper stage recovery, RLV, etc.
But you are right, we should also focus on recycling materials. Even Americans recycle some aerospace materials like Rhenium.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

We all know that there is Streamlined Industrial ecosystem in US and Strong central support in China.

We all know that there is much much more funding in Both US and China.

but also at the same time ISRO does not have to launch 50 missions each year.

We have lower budget but we also have to do less than 10 missions each year and we are struggling with that too.

We are struggling to cross even 5 launches a year for some time.

Whether a country has big budget or small budget, COVID affected them all equally. But only ISRO got somehow affected worse than all.

Vendors as I before. I think a lot of subcontractors of ISRO were destroyed during lockdown.

Good to see PS4 being used for our more practical ASAT capability development: co-orbital killer sats. (although they have announced this before as well)

But I seriously hope they aren't going to go for Methalox based Reusable HLV from the get go. Given how long we will have to wait for a Methalox reusable engine of this class, isn't it better to rely on the SCE-200 for now?

Also, no mention of a Gaganyaan roadmap beyond Space Station. Although they have loosely stated Moon and Mars, I was hoping they'll start looking at what kind of Moon Rocket they are thinking of. Maybe they are waiting to firm up the Reusable HLV design first......but still they should start at least planning it now.

SCE-200 is not practical for this kind of RLV. It will have high payload penalty because of Low ISP. Also it many not have deep throttling capacity, because it wasn't designed for it from day one. It was designed for a winged rlv not this retro propulsion rlv

Lot of technology development going on.

Lagta hai jan ISRO sab bana lengi tab launches ki frequency bade gi

It looks like S. Somanath has finally completely taken over the ISRO.
So he's rescheduling and revising all programs as per his estimates.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Agreed that we shouldn't blindly follow them, but SpaceX has managed to bring launch costs down to below ISRO's launch costs while hiring only Americans. That is the proof of the pudding. And if Starship Superheavy stack can achieve even half of what they aim to do with it, it will be rather impressive compared to the likes of Saturn V and SLS.
Ofcourse there is a lot that the headline figures of launch costs don't tell because they assume a lot of things like complete utilization of payload fairing volume and launch vehicle lift capacity, standard orbit, etc.
ISRO doesn't seem to be blindly following this route either. They are still thinking of upper stage recovery, RLV, etc.
But you are right, we should also focus on recycling materials. Even Americans recycle some aerospace materials like Rhenium.

SpaceX is pure commerical agency and ISRO is to serve government of India. So, tech optimisation won't ever take lead over scientific research in ISRO. That will be done by some private company.

 

[Okabe Rintarou]

SpaceX is pure commerical agency and ISRO is to serve government of India. So, tech optimisation won't ever take lead over scientific research in ISRO. That will be done by some private company.

I was talking about reusability and if SpaceX approach to it is the right one or if its all marketing bluster. And while I agree with your larger point, optimizing LVs to lower launch costs is in the larger interests of ISRO and its mission of leveraging space tech for nation building.

 

[omaebakabaka]

SpaceX has managed to bring launch costs down to below ISRO's launch costs while hiring only Americans.

Space and semis are two major areas where the US still retains domestic supply chains for the most part exception probably at raw material level. Also just like Boeing, spaceX is heavily subsidized and US can print money out of thin air especially last few decades there are no bounds in doing so. I think its a trap and the goal should be to reuse less complex parts and the other more complex ones need to be made good enough to reach space and manufactured in a simple manner. Even the starlink is possibly funded by US gov as its used by military in Ukraine. Recovery and reuse is probably better but difficult for India considering you need vast empty spaces like Russia. That whole reactionary landing for reuse sounds more complex than a parachute or glide based landing.

 

[Vamsi]

SCE-200 and Merlin have similar enough specific impulse. As for deep throttling, yes it won't go down to 40% but SCE-200 can throttle down to 60%. Rest, clustering should take care of it. And ISRO did say they are designing it with reusability upgrades in mind.

No matter, even if SCE-200 isn't fit for the job, continue to develop the methalox but in the meantime, they shouldn't abandon existing plans of HLV based on cluster of 4 or 5 SCE-200.

Also, we need SCE-200 class methalox if we want to build a Starship-Superheavy kind of stack. Raptor is similar thrust and specific impulse. And if we ever build a Moon rocket, it would make a lot of sense to go down the Starship-Superheavy route instead of the Saturn-V and SLS route. Even the Chinese realized this and have now modified design of the Long March 9.

ISRO isn't abandoning the SCE-200 based RLV, they are doing it, but Methalox engine will be more efficient. SCE-200 despite having more Isp than Merlin, has a very low T/W ratio than Merlin, hence SCE-200 based stage will have more empty weight than a Merlin based stage (assuming both carrying same amount of fuel) & this isbthe where the payload penalty comes