The Indian Space Research Organisation flexed its muscles on Wednesday by placing into orbit the heaviest satellite it has launched so far—the 6.1-tonne BlueBird Block 2 designed by a private American company. The heavy communication satellite is part of a constellation of low Earth orbit missions that aim to provide mobile satellite connectivity across time zones. The launch resulted from a commercial deal between Isro’s business arm NewSpace India and the Nasdaq-listed AST SpaceMobile. Isro also launched the company’s first satellite, BlueWalker 1, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in 2019. Until Wednesday, the heaviest payload lifted by Isro was on November 2, when it launched India’s own 4.4-tonne communication satellite GSAT-7R into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.
Isro’s ambitious future projects include India’s first manned space mission, Gaganyaan, in early 2027; Chandrayaan-4, a lunar sample-collection mission, in late 2027; India’s own space station in 2035; and landing the first Indian astronauts on the moon by 2040. All these missions will require much heavier payloads to be lifted, for which Wednesday’s success is a major boost. The first of the five modules of Bharat Antriksh Station, weighing 10 tonnes, will be launched in 2028 aboard a launch vehicle similar to the one used Wednesday, the LVM3. The BAS is planned to weigh 52 tonnes in all when assembled in space. Besides, Isro’s space docking experiment or SpaDeX, launched in January 2025, saw two 220-kg satellites successfully docking and undocking. The plan is to send up heavier satellites in the future for a similar exercise, the capability for which will be crucial to keep the BAS operational, and for other future manned missions to the moon and beyond.
The heavy-lifting LVM3 launchers, nicknamed Bahubali, are designed for much heavier payloads. The Wednesday launch was a test whose success will give the courage to increase the load. So the Bahubalis will be tested time and again. Its two solid-propellant boosters, developed at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, generate the thrust required to lift not just bigger payloads, but India’s space ambitions higher. Space missions have to be meticulously planned in numerous steps. The BlueBird launch was a crucial step that Isro aced.