Indian Space Industry : Updates & Discussions

[Choice_of _inevitability]

nothing. so who's building these sats? in-house, a foreign partner, or buying someone with slots already?

There's a tech transfer of various satellite buses from ISRO to various private players. IMS-1 has already been transferred, however it's the IMS-2 that perfectly matches the power and cooling requirements. The Oneweb satellite ISRO launched were similar in size to IMS-1 based satellites.

The only problem with the above is the form factor, it's cubic and cannot be stacked in large numbers like Starlink which are purpose built.

I'm guessing they can source the communication payloads from players like ADTL or AMPL. Lots of ifs and buts there. The only glaring bottleneck I see is the launch capacity.

 

[Gautam]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2097359827836314089

First launch of Reliance Jio's satellite internet constellation in Sept, 2027!

Reliance Jio, that has been developing a 1,600-satellite constellation for delivering high-speed internet, is now planning to launch their first mission in September next year!

In that first mission, they will launch a small number of satellites to validate their systems and hardware.From there onwards, the roadmap will be as follows –

• 90-100 total satellites by Q2, 2028, internet coverage across India.
• 400-450 satellites by 2030.
• Completed constellation having 1,600 satellites by 2035, global coverage.The constellation will operate in Low Earth Orbit at an altitude of 650 km.

Once the constellation is complete, India will have 30-32 satellites over it at all times, with each satellite delivering 100-150 Gbps throughput, adding up to a total of 4-4.8 Terabits per second!This is higher than the 600 Gbps that SpaceX Starlink has approval for, and the 3 Tbps over India that Amazon Leo has applied for.

ET Exclusive: Reliance Jio eyes September 2027 test flight for 1,600-satellite LEO network

 

[Gautam]

 

[Prokion]

There's a tech transfer of various satellite buses from ISRO to various private players. IMS-1 has already been transferred, however it's the IMS-2 that perfectly matches the power and cooling requirements. The Oneweb satellite ISRO launched were similar in size to IMS-1 based satellites.

The only problem with the above is the form factor, it's cubic and cannot be stacked in large numbers like Starlink which are purpose built.

I'm guessing they can source the communication payloads from players like ADTL or AMPL. Lots of ifs and buts there. The only glaring bottleneck I see is the launch capacity.

Launch capacity can be taken care of, Skyroot CEO Pawan said in an interview that Skyroot is developing a reusable medium-heavy lift launch vehicle which will be especially used for inserting constallations of sattelites, also both Astrobase and Ethereal will be debuting their launch vehicles in 2028, with Agnikul and Skyroot starting commercial launches from next year. I don't think that launch would be a big problem, also probably Jio will not start launching sattelites by the hundreds at once, the cadence and no. of sattelites being launched will increase gradually, giving our launch companies eneough time to catch up. The thing I am worried about is that Reliance will probably partner with a foreign company and give it to them to develop the sattelites, this would completely disregard the sovereignty factor, but again current Indian startups or companies don't have the capacity to manufacture thousands of sattelites. The only company planning to do that is Dhruva Space, its upcoming new manufacturing facility(under construction) will have the capacity of manufacturing a sattelte per day.

, 28:39 onwards.

 

[Ashwin]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2097960821095899398

https://twitter.com/x/status/2097960556494020874

 

[Ashwin]

 

[Gautam]

So, putting it very simplistically, FSCC is a mix of expander cycle & FFSC. Not entirely but close.

Finally, we have some figures for this engine:
View attachment 53728
For their first attempt at a kerolox engine with a new cycle, achieving sea level Isp of 293s would be a great achievement.

More details on this company's engines & rocket.

1. Their LV will be a fully re-usable medium lift vehicle. Payload capacities of 8 tons (with full reusability), 22 tons (with partial reusability) & 24.8 tons (with stages expended) to 400 km LEO. The rocket will also have GTO & TLI capabilities too.
2. The 80kN RP-1/LOX engine, named "Pegasus", shown before is the upper stage engine. Test campaign for this engine will start on 14th of this month. Hot fire by Nov 14th.
3. For the booster stage they are planning a cluster of 9 RP-1/LOX GG cycle engines, each producing 1.2 MN. 430+ kg/sec flow rate. It will run very high chamber pressures. Exact numbers aren't provided. But the turbopumps had to be qualified for PESO 200 bar & PESO 400 bar standards. So, between 20 to 40 MPa. This engine will be called "Stallion".
4. ISRO's LSPC test stand was available for testing. But that facility was built around the SCE-200 engine & was not compatible for this engine. The had to make their own test stand.
5. the "Stallion" will be unveiled in the last week of December or 1st week of January. Hot fire by March-April.
6. First rocket demonstrator flight will happen in Q4 of 2027 or Q1 of 2028 depending on launch pad availability.
7. It would take them 18-20 launches too hit the USD 500 per kg payload cost. In the 1st year of operational use of this launcher, they are planning to do 3-4 launches with an average payload of 8-14 tons. In the 2nd year they are looking at 8-10 launches.

 

[Nithees1]

More details on this company's engines & rocket.

1. Their LV will be a fully re-usable medium lift vehicle. Payload capacities of 8 tons (with full reusability), 22 tons (with partial reusability) & 24.8 tons (with stages expended) to 400 km LEO. The rocket will also have GTO & TLI capabilities too.
2. The 80kN RP-1/LOX engine, named "Pegasus", shown before is the upper stage engine. Test campaign for this engine will start on 14th of this month. Hot fire by Nov 14th.
3. For the booster stage they are planning a cluster of 9 RP-1/LOX GG cycle engines, each producing 1.2 MN. 430+ kg/sec flow rate. It will run very high chamber pressures. Exact numbers aren't provided. But the turbopumps had to be qualified for PESO 200 bar & PESO 400 bar standards. So, between 20 to 40 MPa. This engine will be called "Stallion".
4. ISRO's LSPC test stand was available for testing. But that facility was built around the SCE-200 engine & was not compatible for this engine. The had to make their own test stand.
5. the "Stallion" will be unveiled in the last week of December or 1st week of January. Hot fire by March-April.
6. First rocket demonstrator flight will happen in Q4 of 2027 or Q1 of 2028 depending on launch pad availability.
7. It would take them 18-20 launches too hit the USD 500 per kg payload cost. In the 1st year of operational use of this launcher, they are planning to do 3-4 launches with an average payload of 8-14 tons. In the 2nd year they are looking at 8-10 launches.

so about this decade end can be expected for this to get into commercial sustainability if all things go without a problem (highly unlikely tbh), skyroot need to move a bit faster beyond the vikram mk 2, towards reusability, so that they can sustain themselves and more importantly to create actual competition with these guys.

 

[Ashwin]