ISRO shifts focus to R&D, eyes stronger scientific partnerships

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is distancing itself from its operational roles to focus more on its research capabilities, chairman S Somanath said on Monday.

Speaking at the launch of the Raman Research Institute's (RRI) platinum jubilee celebrations here, he said the “big change” is in line with the union government’s move to establish a new enterprise to handle ISRO’s operational activities – New Space India Limited (NSIL), constituted under the Department of Space (DoS).

“All these activities will now move to the operational sector and ISRO will be focusing more on research and development of advanced technologies,” Somanath said.

October saw ISRO carrying out the first commercial mission of the Launch Vehicle Mark 3, through its marketing arm NSIL, in which 36 OneWeb satellites were placed into low earth orbit.

The shift in focus calls for a strengthening of ties between ISRO and scientific organisations and academic institutions, to facilitate greater R&D activity in space technology.

Somanath said ISRO is open to researchers conducting front-end research at the space agency’s laboratories and other facilities.

The Indian space programme was initially driven by a scientific quest but has since shifted to applications and delivery of services through space-based technology.

Somanath, also secretary, DoS, said the shift would change the way ISRO worked with institutions in the area of research.

The ISRO Chairman said India’s future solar mission Aditya L1, the mission to Venus, and the future exploration of exosolar planets could see the greater engagement of scientists in RRI.