In her last full Budget before Lok Sabha election 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated 12,543.91 crores to the Department of Space (DoS) - a sharp reduction from the Budget 2022.
The major allocation made as per the Budget outlay document are:
| Schemes | Budget (crore) |
| Space Technology | 9,441 |
| Space Application | 1,559 |
| INSAT Satellite System | 531 |
In 2022, the Department of Space (DoS) was allocated Rs 13,700 crores in the annual budget, quite a leap from 2021-22's revised budget of Rs 12,642 crores.
Except for the pandemic year of 2020-21, when COVID-19 hit the Indian economy hard, the Department of Space has witnessed an upward trend in its allocation budget since the Modi government came to power.
Budget allocation for last five years:
| Year | Budget |
| 2023-24 | 12,543.91 |
| 2022-23 | 13,700 |
| 2021-22 | 12,642 |
| 2020-21 | 9,500 |
| 2019-20 | 13,017.61 |
Moreover, the Indian space agency - ISRO is expected to have a busy schedule in 2023 with big-ticket missions such as Chandrayaan-3, Aditya-L1 and a host of commercial launches.
Current status of key upcoming missions is:
Gaganyaan
ISRO Chairman S Somanath, on the sidelines of the Indian Science Congress in Nagpur in January this year, said that India’s first manned mission to space Gaganyaan has been delayed because ISRO is developing environmental control and life support for astronauts.
India’s first crewed mission was originally planned to be launched in December 2021 but since then has been delayed to no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2024.
The astronauts, who have been selected from the Indian Air Force are currently undergoing mission-specific training at Bengaluru and had already completed the first-semester training.
Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission.
Chandrayaan-3
Somanath earlier said that India's third Lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 is almost ready with the satellite being fully integrated and its ruggedisation tests completed.
He added that the best suited opportunity would be between June and July 2023. The mission would be carried out by India's heaviest rocket, the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3).
As per ISRO's website, Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on moon. It consists of Lander and Rover configuration.
Shukrayaan-1
The Venus mission was first revealed in 2022 in the Indian Parliament. As per the latest information, the mission is likely to be performed only at the start of the following decade.
Confirming this, P Sreekumar of the Space Science Programme Office, ISRO, said, "Now, we're waiting for formal approval and money...otherwise, all set to go...the mission was originally scheduled for launch in 2023 and the opportunity (favourable orbital alignment, proximity conditions) to undertake a Venus mission occurs once in 19 months. Right now, the 2031 window looks good."
The Venus mission was proposed back in 2012. ISRO started preliminary investigations in 2017, after the Department of Space got a 23 percent increase in the 2017–2018 budget,
Aditya L1
Aditya-L1 is India's first space-based mission to study the Sun that will observe the Sun's corona. The satellite will be carried by the rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch Aditya-L1 in this year.
It is named after one of many Sanskrit names for the Sun- Aditya. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL) is scheduled to launch the Aditya-L1 from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.
Earlier on January 26, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) handed over the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) - the largest payload to be carried on board the Aditya-L1.
According to ISRO's website, some of the mission's scientific objectives are to study solar upper atmospheric (chromosphere and corona) dynamics and understand the physics of the solar corona and its heating mechanism.
2022: New dawn for private sector in space
2022 marked a new dawn for the private sector in space. On November 18, India successfully launched its first privately developed rocket - the Vikram-S that was developed by a space startup Skyroot Aerospace. Another success story in 2022 was the setting up of India’s first-ever launch pad designed and operated by a private company Agnikul Cosmos at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. According to IN-SPACe, the company is targeting its first suborbital rocket launch by February this year and an orbital launch by around November or December.
“The year 2022 was the beginning of the private sector coming into the sector seriously and was the first year of IN-SPACe. We expect activity to increase in 2023, as a lot of those companies are set to enter into the next phase,” Pawan Goenka, chairman of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) said to Business Standard.
“A lot of interest will come from venture capitalists and private equity firms. In 2022, we have seen funding to the tune of around $110 million. This is quite significant as India’s total budget in the space sector is around $1.4-1.5 billion.”
First Published: Feb 1, 2023 2:22 PM IST
