Slow recovery

Why in the News

Plans for human spaceflight, a space station and reusable launch vehicles sit against only two successful orbital launches by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the first ten months of 2026. The second, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) mission GSLV-F18, carried the NVS-03 navigation satellite after 18 months constrained by two launch failures.

What is NavIC, and why has it needed rescuing?

1. NavIC: Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC), formerly the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), is India’s own satellite navigation system, like a home grown Global Positioning System (GPS). It covers India and up to 1,500 km beyond.
2. Atomic clocks: A receiver finds its position from the exact time signals take to arrive from each satellite. So every satellite depends on accurate onboard atomic clocks.
3. Six month gap: NavIC has been at least one working satellite short for six months. So it could not fix positions over the subcontinent on its own.
4. The takeaway: If NVS-03 reaches its final orbital slot and is commissioned, ISRO will have rescued NavIC.

How has NavIC’s satellite design changed?

1. Indigenous clocks: The three second generation NVS satellites each carry at least one Indian made atomic clock, unlike the imported clocks of the first generation IRNSS satellites.
2. Committee recommendation: The shift follows the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Science and Technology and India’s investments in quantum timekeeping.

What is holding ISRO back?

1. PSLV failures: Those failures were of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Their impact spread because PSLV shares some design aspects with GSLV.
2. Procurement bottlenecks: The PSC flagged difficulty in obtaining specialised components and in ensuring vendors are ready on the timelines NavIC needs.
3. Long lead times: A 2025 request for proposals from ISRO’s Space Applications Centre (SAC) set a lead time of nearly two years between a contract’s start and the first flight models.
4. Stretched workforce: ISRO has too few staff and too little money. Without significant measures, it will keep struggling from one mission to the next.

Challenges

1. Orbit raising risk: The earlier NVS-02 failed when its propulsion failed in transfer orbit, the temporary path from which a satellite climbs to its working slot.
2. Mixed clock fleet: NVS-03 carries procured atomic clocks alongside the indigenous one, so the import risk is reduced, not removed.
3. Foreign fallback: During the gap, the government covered positioning with a blend of the American GPS, Europe’s Galileo and Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the dependence NavIC was built to end.

Way Forward

1. Component schemes: Tweak the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme and the programme to modernise the Semiconductor Laboratory to serve ISRO’s specialised component needs.
2. Dedicated component fund: The Electronics Ministry should set aside funds for specialised components and their qualification tests in a five to seven year programme.
3. Higher space budget: Raise the Department of Space allocation in the next Union Budget, focusing the hike on manufacturing launch vehicles, replacing satellites and recruitment.
4. NavIC operator: Create a dedicated operator for NavIC so that ISRO can focus on its core mandate.
5. National space law: Enact a national space law covering private participation in space activity and liability.

Conclusion

ISRO’s recovery depends less on one successful launch than on the components, people and money its programmes lack. The marker to watch is whether the coming Union Budget lifts the space allocation and whether a NavIC operator and a space law follow.

Key numbers

1. Department of Space allocation: Rs 13,705.6 crore in 2026-27; around Rs 17,000 crore sought for 2027-28.
2. NavIC failure record: Of 11 navigation satellites launched for the seven satellite system, six have failed, mostly because of defective imported atomic clocks.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2018, GS1, 10 marks] Why is Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) needed? How does it help in navigation?”