The recent announcement by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) about a 2013 unmanned mission to the moon – Chandraayan-II – indicates a forward-thinking, progressing and growing presence of India in space exploration.
The exploitation is a good thing since the first Indian moon expedition included six foreign payloads. Although the second trip to the moon has no foreign “passengers,” due to weight considerations since the mission will include a heavy orbiter, lander and a rover, ISRO has become extremely busy as the primary provider for other nation’s satellite-into-orbit delivery needs.
The ISRO’s rocket, dubbed PSLV, or the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle reached a 25-satellite tally back in July when launching a satellite for Algiers and two other extremely small satellites – one built by the University of Toronto in Canada and another by the University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. The Indian space program has proven that ISRO has the ability with its rocket to produce multiple satellite launches. Additionally, India has the technology for placing satellites in different orbits including polar sun synchronous, geosynchronous transfer and both highly elliptical and low-earth orbits.
In its pursuit toward developing a space program, India initially carried “foreign riders” onboard its PSLV rocket launches beginning in 1999 delivering into orbit a Korean and German satellite together. Accepting foreign payloads was a way to fill open space on launches carrying Indian-owned satellites while earning a little extra revenue. This piggy-backing scheme gave way to many “customer-only” launches creating a revenue stream via ISRO’s operating company, Antrix.
With a return mission to the moon, the ISRO makes good use for developing technology with five experiments geared toward mapping major elements present on the lunar surface as well as the rover probing for the presence of water and various other minerals that may prove to be a great value in a not-so-distant commercial sense. ISRO is studying making a manned mission to earth’s nearest neighbor within the next 15 years, according to Professor U.R. Rao, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Space Sciences and former chairman of ISRO.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
