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New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to undertake 16 major space missions in 2024 including 13 launches with indigenous rockets following the successes of the Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1 missions, Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh informed the Parliament on Thursday.
These include half-a-dozen PSLV missions and three GSLV flights besides a commercial launch of LVM3 and a developmental flight of SSLV, which will ultimately be handed over to the private sector for low-earth orbit satellite launches.
The next year will also be crucial for India’s manned space flight programme as two unmanned missions under the Gaganyaan project will be undertaken to validate the human-rated launch vehicle and the orbital module in actual flight.
In addition, multiple sub-orbital missions using a Test Vehicle are planned to validate the Gaganyaan Crew Escape System under various abort conditions, as the space agency eyes for a 2025 time slot to send an Indian to space in an Indian capsule.
The three GSLV missions will be to launch a meteorology satellite, a navigation satellite and the joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite. There will also be an LVM3 commercial mission by NewSpace India Limited.
The six PSLV missions include two missions to launch a space science satellite and an Earth observation satellite, two technology demonstration flights and two commercial missions.
In addition, there will be one mission of SSLV, which is the third developmental flight and will launch a technology demonstration satellite. GSAT-20, a communication satellite will also be launched using a foreign rocket.
The next year would also witness ISRO carrying out two autonomous runway landing experiments of winged body Reusable Launch Vehicles, Singh said.
The minister informed the Rajya Sabha that the number of start-ups in the space sector crossed the 500 mark.
As on November 2023, the total number of startups and companies that have shared their capabilities in the space sector is 523, out of which 297 have submitted applications to the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre seeking support from ISRO for R&D and testing.