ISRO missions planned for 2023; a list of big-ticket projects awaiting their launch

ISRO had a fairly successful run in 2022 as it conducted multiple rocket launches for companies based in both India and overseas. While this year was dedicated to missions to low-Earth orbit (LEO), 2023 will see the agency send spacecrafts to the Moon as well as the sun. Here are major missions ISRO has planned for 2023.

Chandrayaan-3

(Image: ISRO)

India's third mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-3 will be launched in 2023 although the exact date is yet to be announced by ISRO. Chandrayaan-3 will follow the footsteps of Chandrayaan-2 which launched on July 22, 2019 with an orbiter, lander and a rover to explore the mysterious lunar south pole. On August 20, the mission controllers successfully inserted the Orbiter into the lunar orbit and the Vikram lander separated from the orbiter after orbiting the Moon in a 100km polar orbit. The mission was partly successful as the lander lost communication to ground stations just few about 2 km above the surface and crashed with the rover inside it. 

The orbiter, meanwhile, is functioning just fine and the mission teams intend to use its high resolution camera to acquire detailed pictures of the lunar surface. ISRO will not send a new orbiter in Chandrayaan-3 as the one from Chandrayaan-2 will be used for the mission. With Chandrayaan-3, ISRO aims to expand its understanding of the Moon's topography, seismography, mineral identification and distribution, surface chemical composition, thermo-physical characteristics of top soil and composition of the lunar atmosphere. The agency says that the precise launch and mission management has ensured a long life of almost seven years instead of the planned one year.

Gaganyaan

Union Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh told the Lok Sabha earlier this month that ISRO will conduct the first uncrewed demonstration mission for the Gaganyaan program in the last quarter of 2023. The mission named G1 will validate the performance of human-rated launch vehicle, orbital module propulsion system, mission management, communication system and recovery operations. Notably, the spacecraft will be equipped with a humanoid robot that will gather data on spaceflight (g forces, vibrations etc).

Dr. Singh also revealed that the astronauts selected for the crewed Gaganyaan mission, targeted no earlier than 2024 end, are undergoing their mission-specific training in Bengaluru. There are two uncrewed missions planned under the program before ISRO launches a crew. The crewed launch has been delayed by a couple of years as the agency chief S Somanath said that engineers are putting in additional work to ensure safety of the crew. The $1.4 billion program has been made possible under a 2019 agreement with Russia, where four Indian Air Force officers were initially trained. 

Aditya L-1 mission

(Image: ISRO)

Aditya-L1 will be India's maiden mission to study the sun and it is also targeted for launch next year at a yet-to-be-decided date. The space-based solar observatory will be installed at the first Lagrange point (L1), about 15 lakh kilometres from the Earth as this location provides a continuous view of the Sun without any occultation or eclipses. According to ISRO, the 400-kg observatory will be equipped with seven payloads, four of which will directly view the Sun from the unique vantage point of L1, and the remaining three payloads carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields.

The objective of the Aditya L-1 mission is to observe the photosphere, chromosphere, and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle detectors.

NISAR mission

ISRO has developed the NISAR mission in collaboration with NASA and is aiming its launch in 2023, although the date has not been confirmed yet. Short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), it is a satellite that will be installed 747 kilometres above Earth to measure our planet's changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses and gain information about biomass, natural hazards, sea-level rise, and groundwater. With a minimum life span of three years, NISAR will observe Earth's land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity and will sample the planet on an average of every six days. 

Launches for OneWeb

ISRO will also launch its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rockets to loft OneWeb's internet satellites as part of the agreement signed between the two parties earlier this year. ISRO is offering its launch services to the UK-based firm after Russia terminated the deal for launches aboard its Soyuz rockets over the Ukraine crisis. Ever since being snubbed by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, OneWeb has inked deals with ISRO, Elon Musk's SpaceX and European launch provider Arianespace. 

ISRO conducted the first launch of 36 OneWeb satellites aboard its Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) rocket on October 23 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. As part of the deal, the agency will carry out more such launches to complete OneWeb's internet satellite constellation.