ISRO’s spaceport at Kulasekarapattinam to be commissioned in 2026-2027, says Dr Jitendra Singh

In his reply, Dr Singh informed the Lower House that the site development and land acquisition, except land for re-routing the east-coast road, were complete. In addition, construction work for the technical facilities was progressing at the site.

At present, all space launches undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are realised from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, or SHAR, located at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

In February 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of the spaceport which enjoys a geographical advantage along the coastal Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district. This spaceport, with a financial outlay of Rs. 985.96 crore, will be extensively and exclusively used for commercial, on-demand and small satellite launches in future.

” Post commissioning, the launches of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) and equivalent vehicles from the non-government entities are planned to be carried out from Kulasekarapattinam,” the DoS minister stated.

The SSLV missions are best suited for launching small-sized satellites, low on cost and the intended satellite insertion is done into the Low Earth Orbit. As they typically weigh anywhere between 10 to 500kg, the requirement of a short trajectory and the ability to accomplish the mission in limited fuel is essential. These requirements will be met once the new launch facility at Kulasekarapattinam will be operational as it will offer a direct south-bound and smaller launch trajectory.

From the time since the commencement of the ground works at the site till July this year , a sum of Rs. 389.58 crore has been spent on the project development.

The upcoming spaceport, Dr Singh said, will enhance the payload capability of satellite launch vehicles in the class of ISRO’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), while launching satellites to polar orbits.