BENGALURU: ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said on Wednesday that apart from looking at procuring cryogenic engines from other countries, work on developing such engines indigenously has been speeded up.
The Union government recently gave ISRO approval to procure cryogenic engines from other countries in the wake of mission failures. ISRO is said to be in talks with Russian space agencies on procuring state of the art cryogenic engines. Speaking on the sidelines of a three-day international conference on spacecraft mission operations SMOPS-2026, Narayanan emphasised the importance of space missions.
This is the second symposium after 2023 on the theme, Innovative Operations for Smart and Sustainable Space Mission Management - Next Generation. Narayanan said mission operations are crucial for the success of missions, particularly the long-duration ones. Rockets launch the spacecraft into the designated orbit. They work for around 25 minutes, but require a lot of energy. Spacecraft operate for 2-15 years and their operations are crucial.
The spacecraft mission operations’ team’s role is very significant and even minor errors in issuing commands can jeopardise the entire mission. On the Gaganyaan mission, Narayanan termed it a defining step for India and said work on it is on.
Preparations for the crewed and uncrewed missions are on. Not wanting to disclose the time of launch of the first uncrewed mission, Narayanan said there will be three uncrewed missions before the crewed one. Work in this regard is on in a phased manner. Stressing the importance of technological advances, including artificial intelligence and cloud-based systems, he said they are transforming mission operations.
He said many new developments have happened in the crew escape system and environmental control and life-support system. However, human rating of technological interventions and launch vehicles is essential.
