Now Reading: ISRO to stop making rockets, private industry to take over
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ISRO to stop making rockets, private industry to take over
ISRO will stop building launch vehicles and hand over all manufacturing to private companies and PSUs, said IN-SPACe Chairman Pawan Goenka at the India @ 100 Economy Summit. The space agency will instead focus on research, scientific missions, and advanced technologies. The first such transfer has already happened: production rights for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) have gone to HAL. Similar arrangements are planned for the PSLV and LVM3 rockets.
Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair has questioned the viability of the move. He says industry already does about 90% of the work on PSLV and GSLV rockets. The final assembly, integration, testing and launching are the critical parts that ISRO must keep, he argues. Nair added that creating a manufacturing facility similar to ISRO would cost about Rs 50,000 crore, while returns would be only a few thousand crore, a hard sell for private investment.
The government is also planning to give operations of the new Small Satellite Launch Complex in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi district to a private operator. Goenka said the operator could be finalised within four to five months.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The coverage of ISRO’s move to privatise launch vehicle production reveals a clear split. Thenewsminute.com leads with former ISRO chairman Nair’s sharp critique, emphasising that industry already handles 90% of rocket work and questioning the commercial viability against the project's Rs 50,000-crore cost. Its framing presents privatisation as a risky, decades-long non-starter. India TV, by contrast, runs a straight, uncritical summary of Goenka’s announcement, omitting Nair’s counter entirely and presenting the shift as settled. The measured read: the policy is real and the government is moving ahead, but industry response and profitability remain unproven. Watch whether IN-SPACe finalises a private operator for the new launch complex within the promised four to five months.
Coverage: 2 sources, 1 pro-government, 1 government-critical
Sources (2): thenewsminute.com (government critical), indiatvnews.com (pro government)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Methodology and corrections.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
