Indian space ecosystem: Big feats, small setbacks
2025 was a successful year for the Indian space ecosystem led by ISRO despite a few unexpected setbacks. Thus, there were moments of joy as well as disappointment.
ISRO achieved a milestone in the beginning of the year with the successful launch of two ‘SpaDeX’ satellites. Separated by about 20km in orbit, the satellites were successfully docked on January 16. Two months later, they were successfully undocked. This process was repeated for the second time in orbit, thereby making India one of the few countries having this capability with far reaching implications.
The year also saw GSLV Mark–II, which metamorphosed into an ‘obedient child’ from its earlier ‘naughty boy’ image, flawlessly proving its versatility by placing the 2,400kg NISAR satellite in its intended orbit on July 30.
Another event that the country rejoiced was the successful sojourn of ISRO’s Gaganyatri Group Capt Shubhanshu Shukla as the pilot of the ‘Axiom 4’ mission to International Space Station (ISS). And LVM3, the most powerful launch vehicle built by ISRO and affectionately referred to as ‘Bahubali’, achieved another success on November 2 by placing CMS-03 communication satellite in its intended intermediate orbit.
The PM inaugurating the Skyroot Launch Vehicle integration facility in Hyderabad on November 27 signified the notable progress in the Indian space startups domain.
However, there was disappointment, too, when NVS-02 of the NavIC navigation satellite constellation failed to reach the final orbit on its own, following its successful launch by GSLV MkII on January 29. This was compounded by the inability of India’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV to accomplish the launch of EOS-09 radar satellite on May 18.
What was surprising was PSLV repeatedly proving its reliability, versatility and resilience in the past three decades. In the meantime, postponement of the launch of the first industry-built PSLV (rather than ISRO) as well as the first unmanned flight of Gaganyaan came as a bit of a disappointment. But delays are common in the global space programmes. Considering the mind-boggling speed and stress involved in spaceflight, this cautious approach is inevitable indeed.
In the beginning of 2025 when the NISAR satellite, jointly built by NASA and ISRO, was being prepared for launch, there was a lot of excitement, expectation coupled with apprehension. After all, it was a costly and complex earth observation satellite worth $1.5 billion that carried two types of radars. One of its radars (L-band) and the 40-foot wide sieve-like antenna and associated system was supplied by NASA. The other radar (S-band), the satellite itself, and more importantly, the launch, were facilitated by ISRO.
Compared to its siblings PSLV and LVM3, GSLV’s track record was not very impressive. But after a majestic lift-off from Sriharikota, the vehicle proved its mettle by successfully placing the NISAR satellite in its intended orbit.
2025 was a watershed year for the Indian human spaceflight programme, the maiden step of which is Gaganyaan. On June 25, Group Capt Shubhanshu Shukla was successfully launched by SpaceX launch vehicle ‘Falcon 9’ along with three others as part of the private ‘Axiom 4’ mission to the ISS. During his 18-day stay onboard ISS, Group Capt Shukla gained invaluable experience on living and working in space. It was heartening to see him to be part of around 60 experiments, of which seven were designed and developed in India. His successful return on July 15 signified a major input to our Gaganyaan programme on training gaganyatris and accomplishing human spaceflight.
Another major milestone in the Gaganyaan programme was the Integrated AirDropTest of a crew module from a helicopter in which its critical parachute-assisted descent validated on August 24.
In the context of setbacks suffered by ISRO in 2025, it is pertinent to remember the dictum – ‘spaceflight is not for the faint hearted’. Its highly complex nature makes engineers ‘have butterflies in the stomach’ each time they conduct a rocket launch.
Against this background, 2026 looks very challenging for the Indian space ecosystem in general and ISRO in particular. Considering the gruelling challenges successfully met by ISRO in the past, whether in the realm of rockets, satellites or allied systems, we can be cautiously optimistic about India’s ascent trajectory in space.