Raising the bar: ISRO's LVM-3 launch marks a milestone
The Tribune Editorial: With LVM-3 launch, ISRO has slowly but steadily earned its rightful place in the big players' club.
BY successfully placing its heaviest-ever satellite into the low earth orbit, the LVM-3 rocket has set the bar higher for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It's the Indian space agency's third commercial mission involving the new launch vehicle, but the dynamics involved carry much significance. The US communications satellite BlueBird Block-2 weighs nearly 6,100 kg, and with its successful launch, ISRO has demonstrated its ability to deliver at much lower costs than the launch options available abroad. LMV-3's last mission was on November 2, and the short-gap launch in the following month itself proves the space agency's capability to quickly assemble its heavier missions.
LVM-3 has previously powered flagship missions such as Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3. A modified version of the rocket will be used in the Gaganyaan missions. ISRO — celebrated for its frugal engineering and spectacular space missions — has slowly but steadily earned its rightful place in the big players' club. With the government opening up the space sector for private entities in 2020, a new momentum is visible. Fuelled by reforms, scores of space tech startups have come up, but for a sector with uncertain timelines and a high risk of failure, an ecosystem of resolve, faith and huge capital influx is par for the course. Estimates say India's share of the global space business will reach 8-10 per cent by 2033. It's no small achievement, but in the hyper-tech global order, there is little room for laxity or cut-off of big funding.
India's space ambitions are no less than a leap of faith. The journey has caught the global imagination, but soaring dreams need pragmatic overviews. It's vital to make realistic assessments and take the country along on where we want to go, how and why it matters in the long run.
