NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: Allaying the fears of some of its staff that the organisation will be privatised and its role reduced to an R&D lab, Isro Sunday dismissed “speculation” about any diminution of its role as “misinformation”.“These assertions are completely baseless and incorrect. We wish to categorically state that Isro will neither be privatised nor will its importance be diminished,” it said.Isro further said it would continue to remain “India’s principal institution for advanced space research and technology development, national and strategic missions, space science and exploration, and critical and frontier space capabilities”.Space promoter and regulator Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (INSPACe) chairperson Pawan Goenka also said Sunday that Isro would “remain the bedrock of the Indian space sector” and at the core of India’s space programme leading frontier research and the next generation of national missions like the space station and Gaganyaan.The agency said, “Participation of private sector in space is not about reducing its role. It is about enabling Isro to focus even more strongly on the next generation of India’s space programme, while industry scales mature technologies and capabilities. What is changing is not the importance of Isro, but the scale and structure of India’s space ecosystem. The transition is therefore towards an Isro-led national space ecosystem.”The agency also said its role would progressively strengthen in areas where “its scientific expertise matters most: frontier R&D, advanced technologies, human spaceflight, next-generation launch systems, deep-space and planetary missions and strategic national capabilities. It will continue developing cutting-edge technologies, including advanced payloads for communication, navigation and Earth observation, sensors, propulsion systems and other critical technologies”.After nine Isro staff associations representing thousands sought clarification from the agency chairperson on the private sector shift, Goenka said on X, “Let me say it unequivocally: Isro’s role is by no means diminishing.”On scaling up the production of rockets and satellites in India, the INSPACe director declared that the country had set an “ambitious target” of 50 launches a year by 2030. “A goal of this scale cannot be achieved by one organisation alone. Govt and private industry have to build this future together,” he said.The INSPACe chairperson said, “The reforms since 2020 are about expanding India’s overall space ecosystem. IN-SPACe will facilitate and authorise greater non-govt participation, while NSIL will help commercialise mature capabilities.”Goenka said the idea of space reforms is to “let industry increasingly manufacture and scale mature launch vehicles, satellites and other systems, while Isro focuses on what it is uniquely placed to do: advanced R&D, scientific missions, strategic missions, new technologies, and infrastructure that is too complex for the private sector to develop on its own”.
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Assuring staff that they were going to handle big projects, he said, “Isro will remain at the core of India’s space programme, leading frontier research and the next generation of national missions, including Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035, an Indian crewed mission to the Moon by 2040, next-generation launch systems, and sustained lunar and planetary exploration.”“The direction is not a smaller Isro. It is a larger Indian space ecosystem, with Isro pushing the technological frontier,” he added.
