India’s Big Leap: A Space Station, Moon, Venus, and a Reusable Rocket

The Council of Ministers has approved the development of an orbiting laboratory, a new heavier launcher with a reusable first stage, and two missions: to the Moon and then to Venus. A total of 27 billion in new funds.

BY EMILIO COZZI

India is speeding up its efforts in space and is ready for a significant leap forward, in fact, four leaps. Despite its ambitions on paper to be a major power, it is the numbers—that is, the resources allocated—that make the difference compared to other giants of contemporary astropolitics. In total, New Delhi is allocating around 2.7 billion dollars in new funds for three projects to be implemented by 2028. Announced by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, these projects range
from the construction of a manned space station in Earth’s orbit to the development of a reusable launcher, a return to the Moon, and the exploration of Venus.
Looking at the figures, even with a population exceeding 1.4 billion and a GDP lower than that of Germany, it’s clear that the subcontinent cannot yet afford an effort equal to that of the major space powers (especially the United States and China). The annual budget allocated to the Department of Space slightly exceeds 1.5 billion dollars, but it boasts an economy in rapid growth estimated at around 8 billion. In other words, they aim high but with a strategy that could be described as low cost. At least for now.

A New Home in Orbit

The largest investment is for the Bharatiya Anthariksh Station (BAS), the Indian space station, amounting to 24 billion dollars, thanks to a budget increase approved in September of an additional 135 billion. This is part of the implementation of the Gaganyaan program for human spaceflight and exploration.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will lead the entire project. The program envisions the first human mission launching from Indian soil in 2025, four missions by 2026, “the development of the first
BAS module, and four missions for demonstrating and validating various BAS technologies by December 2028,” and finally, achieving full operational capability of the station by 2035. The Modi government’s vision for space, called Amrit Kaal (“The Era of the Elixir”), includes, among other things, a lunar mission with an Indian crew by 2040.
India, though years or even decades behind, is attempting to close the gap by accelerating, but it’s aware that it cannot invest 100 billion on its own (the amount the International Space Station cost). Nevertheless, if the project goes according to plan, it’s significant that just before the decommissioning of the ISS, New Delhi will have its own orbital laboratory where experiments can be conducted in zero gravity, fostering innovation and industrial capabilities.

A Reusable Launcher

“A launch vehicle with a high payload, economically reusable, and commercially viable.” This is how the Indian Cabinet’s press release summarizes the qualities of the New Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV).
India has developed various launchers over time to meet its rapidly growing space power needs: it has a medium-heavy launcher, the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3), the Polar Launch Vehicle, the Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) of medium power, and the lighter Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSMV). However, it still lacks a so-called “heavy launcher”: the NGLV is expected to carry up to 30 tons
into low Earth orbit, three times the payload of India’s current flagship launcher at one and a half times its cost, with a reusable first stage.
The NGLV aims to give India the ability to transport subcontinental astronauts to the lunar surface. It will also serve for interplanetary missions and launches to the future national space station in low Earth
orbit. The development deadline is eight years, with three demonstration flights to validate the technology and equip India with a launcher more powerful than a Falcon 9 and an Ariane 6. The total approved fund for the new NGLV rocket is 988 million dollars, covering development costs, the three demonstration flights, the creation of essential facilities, program management, and the launch campaign. This is much less than the cost of major institutional launchers but still more than Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy (and in a different context from the U.S.).

Return to the Moon and Then to Venus

India has also announced its intention to return to the Moon. The program remains Chandrayaan, and this mission is number 4: a soft landing, sample collection, and departure to bring a piece of lunar soil
back to Earth. Along with the Gaganyaan program, it will be a precursor to a crewed landing, allowing India to address and acquire the necessary technologies like landing, relaunch, and orbital docking
maneuvers. Chandrayaan-4 has a budget of 253 million dollars available.
After reaching Mars, India has set its sights on Venus, another rocky planet that is similar in size to Earth but vastly different in terms of temperature and surface pressure, which have made it an “infernal”
world. This is precisely the mystery that attracts research, in addition to the drive for ever-advanced technological development. The Venus Orbiter Mission aims to launch a scientific spacecraft into orbit around the planet. Its objective: to study Venusian surface and subsurface, atmospheric processes, and solar influences. Ultimately, to understand the causes of Venus’s transformation, believed to have once been habitable and similar to Earth. The mission’s budget is about 149 million dollars, with a launch planned for 2028.

India’s Bet and the American Ally

India now aims to do everything on its own, trying to minimize imports. The goal is to acquire know-how, stimulate technological spin-offs, and encourage innovation in key research and development areas, creating an economic catalyst well-known in the West that can generate growth and jobs.
According to current estimates, the Indian space economy could reach 40 billion over the next ten years. The government is even more ambitious, aiming for 100 billion by 2040.
For this reason, the 27 billion dollars spread over many years might seem modest and indeed pales in comparison to a country like Italy, which, with twenty times fewer inhabitants, has allocated funds of 72
billion euros over the next three years (including PNRR and ESA budget). However, buoyed by successes already achieved with low or very low-cost missions, like the lunar landing in August 2023, India has
every reason and the numbers to envision a bright future: companies and startups are flourishing, though the extent of this boom should be assessed cautiously (+235% in two years according to “India Today”
citing the Tracxn report). It is said that there are about a hundred startups and 120 million investments raised by emerging companies. Notably, the context is strengthened by its alliance with the United States for joint missions in orbit and on the Moon. A success in the space field, which is also the result of a geopolitical positioning that allows Modi to claim a front-row seat in the race to conquer other worlds.