A giant rocket built by India’s space agency on Wednesday ferried into orbit the heaviest satellite launched yet from India — a 6,100kg US communications satellite — marking the rocket’s ninth straight successful flight and third commercial mission.
The 43-metre-tall Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3), roughly the height of a 14-storey building, lifted off from the Sriharikota island spaceport off the Andhra Pradesh coast at 8.55am and, about 15 minutes later, released the BlueBird Block-2 satellite.
The BlueBird Block-2 satellite owned by AST SpaceMobile, a Texas-based satellite-maker, is intended to be part of a constellation of satellites designed to offer mobile and broadband services to smartphones directly from space without the need for ground hardware.
“The LVM-3 has successfully and precisely injected the BlueBird satellite into its intended orbit,” V. Narayanan, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), said after the launch, adding that LVM-3 had demonstrated “an excellent track record”.
Since its maiden flight in December 2014, Isro has used the LVM-3 to launch the Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft for lunar missions, two sets of satellites for a UK telecommunications firm, and a satellite for the Indian Navy.
Wednesday’s mission has demonstrated LVM-3’s technological maturity to manage heavy lift missions and bolstered confidence in the reliability of the rocket, which Isro wants to use for its planned human spaceflight programme called Gaganyaan, the space department said.
The Gaganyaan programme seeks to launch a space capsule with two or three astronauts into a 400km orbit around Earth and bring them safely back through a splashdown in the Indian sea waters. Isro said in May that the first crewed Gaganyaan flight is expected to take place in early 2027.
Narayanan said the LVM-3’s BlueBird flight was the rocket’s ninth straight successful mission and had demonstrated the vehicle’s “100 per cent reliability”. The rocket on Wednesday deployed the satellite 518.5km above the Earth against the intended 520km which, Narayanan said, marked “one of the best performances of any launch vehicle in the global arena”.
“This gives us great confidence for the Gaganyaan programme,” he said.
Space officials also view the launch as a fresh validation of India’s growing role as a reliable launch service provider for global customers. India has launched over 430 satellites for customers from 34 countries since an Isro rocket ferried its first foreign passengers — a South Korean satellite and a German satellite — in 1999.
Beyond Gaganyaan, Isro has laid out ambitious long-term space goals. The country aims to establish its own space station by 2035, marking a sustained human presence in orbit, and is targeting a human landing on the moon by 2040, underscoring its growing capabilities and aspirations as a major spacefaring nation.
The space department had earlier this year announced that Isro has broadened the scope of the Gaganyaan programme to six uncrewed flights and two crewed flights by 2028 as precursor missions towards India’s ownspace station.
The LVM-3 can carry up to 10,000kg payload into low-Earth orbit. But, former Isro chairman S. Somanath had last year said India would need higher payload capabilities, typically 30,000kg, to build a space station or to send humans to the moon.