ISRO plans seven satellite missions by March 2026

New Delhi: In the next four months, India plans seven satellite launches including the first uncrewed mission of the Gaganyaan programme and a dedicated earth observation platform to keep an eye on the strategically important Indian Ocean Region, the Union government informed the Parliament on Thursday.

Others include a second strategic satellite, an Indo-Mauritius joint satellite to be launched by the first industry-made PSLV and the first commercial flight of the small satellite launch vehicle, a rocket meant to provide launch-on-demand service to the industry.

The first uncrewed mission of Gaganyaan will demonstrate aerodynamics characterisation of human rated launch vehicle, mission operations of the Orbital Module, and re-entry and recovery of Crew Module, Union Science Minister Jitendra Singh said in a written response to a query.

Two different rockets would be used to launch the satellites for strategic users. While GSLV will carry EOS-05 presumably for a higher orbit, the workhorse PSLV will be used for EOS-N1 along with 18 co-passenger satellites.

Sources said Indian Navy might be the user for EOS-05, while other agencies would utilise EOS-N1 to keep an eye on China and Pakistan.

The launches scheduled by March 2026 include a Technology Demonstration Satellite (TDS-01) to demonstrate new technologies such as high Thrust electric propulsion system, indigenous TWT (Travelling Wave Tube) amplifier and quantum key distribution.

The Indian Space Research Organisation will launch Blue Bird Block-2 satellites, a new generation communication satellites developed by US firm AST SpaceMobile to provide direct-to-smartphone satellite internet connectivity.

Among the satellites planned for launch by March 2026, is the Oceansat-3A (EOS-10) for meteorological, oceanographic and land applications.

The satellite has Ocean Colour Monitor, Scatterometer, Sea Surface Temperature Monitor, and Millimeter wave Atmospheric Temperature and Humidity Sounder as payloads. The satellite in tandem with Oceansat- 3 (EOS -06) will provide daily data for various applications.

In 2022, the New Space India Limited awarded a contract to a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-L&T consortium to build five Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles. The first of the five will be among the seven launches planned in the first quarter of 2026. Subsequently, HAL has bagged another contract to manufacture the SSLVs for 10 years.

Minister Singh said these missions would further establish India as a major player in the commercial launch services market and demonstrate new technologies.

Responding to another query, Singh said between January 2004 and December 2013, there were only 54 satellite launches including 31 foreign ones whereas between January 2014 and November 2025, as many as 454 satellites were launched by ISRO including 398 foreign satellites.