**ISRO’s dedicated service providing becomes an affordable alternative **

By T N Ashok

A rocket lifted off at dawn from the coastal launch complex of Sriharikota, carrying a 6.1-ton American communications satellite into the December sky. Within minutes, the payload was safely deployed in orbit, another mission completed with the metronomic precision that has become India’s calling card in space.

For the Indian Space Research Organisation, the launch represented far more than a routine deployment. It marked the arrival of a new economic force in one of the world’s most capital-intensive industries — and a fundamental challenge to the assumption that spaceflight must be either prohibitively expensive or dominated by a handful of Western powers.

In less than a decade, India has quietly transformed itself from a respected but marginal player in commercial space into an indispensable alternative for satellite operators worldwide. The numbers tell the story: nearly 400 foreign satellites launched for more than 30 countries since 2015, generating upward of $400 million in revenue for what was once an almost entirely state-funded scientific endeavour.

Now, as geopolitical upheaval disrupts established launch providers and costs spiral elsewhere, India is positioning itself as the market’s great stabilizer — reliable, affordable, and refreshingly free of drama.

The global launch industry seemed settled until recently. SpaceX commanded the market with its reusable Falcon 9 rockets. Russia’s Soyuz provided backup capacity. Europe’s Ariane family served institutional customers. The system worked, if not always smoothly.

Then the ground shifted. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine severed access to Soyuz for Western clients overnight. Europe’s next-generation Ariane 6 suffered years of delays, leaving a gaping hole in heavy-lift capacity. Even SpaceX, despite launching more than 130 missions in 2024 alone, found its manifest crowded with its own Starlink constellation, creating bottlenecks for outside customers. Satellite operators, facing expensive delays and limited options, began looking elsewhere. They found India waiting.

The transformation began with ISRO’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which absorbed displaced payloads with assembly-line consistency. But the real statement came when India opened its heavy-lift LVM3 rocket — originally reserved for national security missions and a future crewed spaceflight program — to international commercial customers.

The December launch of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird satellite, the largest commercial payload India has ever carried, demonstrated the rocket’s capabilities beyond doubt. The satellite’s tennis court-sized antenna will beam cellular signals directly to smartphones, a technological marvel that required a launch provider capable of precision and power.

“This wasn’t about prestige,” said a former senior NASA official familiar with commercial procurement. “This was about finding a rocket that could do the job at the right price, on schedule. India delivered.”

Behind India’s ascent stands NewSpace India Limited, a state-owned commercial arm created to monetize ISRO’s decades of accumulated expertise. Unlike NASA or the European Space Agency, which conduct research but don’t directly sell launches, NSIL operates as a full-service provider, marketing Indian rockets and managing customer relationships. Its value proposition cuts through industry complexity with brutal simplicity: known prices, predictable schedules, minimal surprises.

Industry analysts estimate an LVM3 launch costs $55 million to $60 million, substantially less than comparable Western heavy-lift options. While ISRO doesn’t publish official pricing, customers consistently report that Indian bids undercut competitors for similar missions.

The cost advantage stems from India’s unique economic model. ISRO’s development expenses are absorbed by government programs like the Gaganyaan crewed mission and planned space station, reducing the marginal cost of each commercial flight. Lower labor costs and vertically integrated manufacturing — India builds most components domestically — further compresses expenses.

“India benefits from the same playbook America used during the Space Shuttle era,” noted an aerospace economist. “Government missions fund the infrastructure. Commercial customers enjoy the efficiency gains.”

The approach has attracted an improbably diverse client base. American companies launch from India. So do European firms, Asian startups, and Middle Eastern governments. The customer list reads like a United Nations roll call: 231 American satellites, 86 British, dozens more from Germany, Canada, South Korea, and Singapore.

Comparisons to SpaceX are inevitable but misleading. Elon Musk’s company dominates through scale, reusability, and vertical integration, launching its own satellites while serving outside customers. That model creates extraordinary efficiency but also conflicts of interest.

India offers something fundamentally different: a dedicated service provider with no internal constellation competing for launch slots. The LVM3 remains expendable rather than reusable, and launch cadence is measured in dozens annually rather than hundreds. But for satellite operators seeking guaranteed access without fighting for schedule priority, those limitations become advantages.”SpaceX is both indispensable and, increasingly, unavoidable for many customers,” said a U.S.-based satellite analyst. “India provides an exit.”

That matters in an industry where delays cascade into millions in lost revenue and broken financing agreements. For large, complex satellites that can’t rideshare and need dedicated launches, a reliable alternative at a competitive price becomes decisive.

India isn’t racing anyone to Mars or chasing reusable rockets with SpaceX’s intensity. Its strategy centres on methodical industrialization — transferring PSLV production to private industry, scaling up manufacturing, and targeting dozens of annual launches by decade’s end.

ISRO has tested reusable launch vehicle technology but hasn’t operationalized it. Private Indian startups like Skyroot and Agnikul are experimenting with advanced propulsion, but remain years behind SpaceX’s maturity. By traditional measures of technological ambition, India still trails the United States and China.

Yet in the metric that ultimately matters to commercial customers — mission success rate — India’s record approaches 96 percent. Rockets launch on schedule. Satellites reach intended orbits. Invoices match quotes.”This isn’t a moonshot strategy,” said a former ISRO official. “It’s industrialization.”

For U.S. policymakers, India’s emergence represents competition, not confrontation. American companies increasingly make sourcing decisions based on economics rather than alliance politics, reflecting a space industry that has matured beyond symbolism into hard-nosed business calculation.”This is what healthy competition looks like,” said a former Pentagon space adviser. “It disciplines pricing and improves service across the board.”

The BlueBird launch won’t redefine space history. SpaceX remains the industry titan. China continues rapid advancement. Europe is regrouping. But India is rewriting the assumptions about what’s possible in commercial space. A government agency in a developing economy is outcompeting established Western firms not through technological revolution but through operational excellence and financial discipline.

For satellite operators navigating an industry where delays are epidemic and costs are volatile, India offers something increasingly rare: predictability. Rockets that launch when scheduled. Prices that don’t change. Engineering teams that focus on execution over spectacle.

As one industry executive observed: “The future of space access won’t belong to whoever makes the most noise. It will belong to whoever shows up, does the work, and sends the invoice.”From this coastal launch complex in southern India, where rockets rise into equatorial orbits with workmanlike efficiency, that future is already taking shape. (IPA Service)