After the successful launch of the NISAR satellite, ISRO chairman V. Narayanan announced on Wednesday that the next collaborative mission with NASA—the launch of the Blue Bird Block2 communication satellite—will be among nine major launches planned from this spaceport by the end of the current fiscal year. Speaking at the Mission Control Centre, he stated that these missions are being executed under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Before the end of this financial year, nine major launches are planned. The next major launch is the LVM3-M5 Mission, where the LVM3 rocket will deploy a communication satellite CMS-02," he said.
Blue Bird Block2
Among the significant upcoming missions is another collaboration with NASA. Following Axiom-4 and today's GSLV-F16/NISAR mission, this partnership will see ISRO's LVM-3 vehicle launch the Blue Bird Block2, a communication satellite for the USA. "The next one is the launch of Blue Bird Block2 satellite, a communication satellite of the USA. We are going to launch the satellite using our LVM-3 vehicle," he said, without elaborating further.
Additionally, ISRO's trusted workhorse, PSLV-C61, is set to launch OCEANSAT-3A, while GSLV-F18 would deploy the GISAT-1A satellite. "We are also planning to launch a couple of SSLV (Small Satellite Launch Vehicle) missions," Narayanan added.
Narayanan, who is also the Secretary of the Department of Space, mentioned that after the LVM3-M5 mission, a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C63 is targeted for launching a user-funded satellite. "This will be followed by the first PSLV which has been realised by the industrial consortium, named PSLV-N1.
It is the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that a space sector reform was announced, and this is the fruit of that reform. The first launcher is going to be rolled out from the private industry consortium, which is going to launch a technology-demonstrating satellite. On this mission, we are going to demonstrate more than 30 technologies, including electric propulsion and quantum communication; so many technologies are planned to be demonstrated," he said.
Among the future launches, the ISRO chief stated that the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F17) would deploy a navigation satellite, NVS-03, within the current financial year. ISRO successfully placed the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission onboard a GSLV-F16 rocket from this spaceport on Wednesday.
