It is not just workers at Indian Space Research Organization who will be waiting with baited breath on Friday afternoon when India's third mission to the moon - Chandrayaan-3 takes off. Also on tenterhooks will be workers at Larsen & Toubro's factories at Powai in Mumbai, and Coimbatore.
India's largest construction company has built key components of Chandrayaan-3. The launch vehicle's critical booster segments – the head-end segment, the middle segment and the nozzle bucket flange -- were manufactured at L&T's factories in Powai.
Similarly, L&T's hi-tech aerospace manufacturing plant at Coimbatore provided components such as ground and flight umbilical plates.
L&T, which is usually involved in the construction of factories, roads and other civilian infrastructure, expects more opportunities to come up in the space industry. The Modi government took a decision to open up the Indian space industry to private sector players three years ago.
“We will leverage this long association with ISRO to play a bigger role in space programmes of the future,” said AT Ramchandani, head of L&T’s defence division.
Besides Chandrayaan-3, L&T has also been involved in the production of other ISRO missions such as Chandrayaan-1 and 2, Gaganyaan and Mangalyaan.
L&T said it has played a role in helping ISRO put together its launch vehicles in the past.
For example, it made a radar system, called Precision Monopulse Tracking Radar (PMTR), which has been installed at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and has been used for the tracking of various rockets sent by ISRO. L&T also constructed a deep space networking antenna at Byalalu near Bangalore.
The Chandrayaan-3, aimed at furthering India’s understanding of the lunar ecosystem, will be launched from Sriharikota on July 14 at 2:35 pm.
The mission will be powered by ISRO’s LVM3 launcher, which will carry a lander and a rover, and will be powered by S-200 solid propellant.