LVM-3 to launch CMS-03 on November 2; Nisar to begin operations soon

BENGALURU: Isro will launch its next heavy-lift mission, LVM-3, early next month to place the CMS-03 communication satellite — also known as Gsat-7R — in orbit, chairman V Narayanan said Thursday. Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director A Rajarajan confirmed the date as November 2.

Speaking at the curtain raiser briefing on the Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC) 2025, Narayanan said the coming months would see “many exciting missions”, and that the Nasa-Isro joint mission Nisar will be operational in two-three weeks.

Terming it a major step in Indo-US cooperation, Narayanan said the satellite was healthy and both payloads were performing optimally.

Following the launch of CMS-03, Isro will carry out another LVM-3 mission which will launch US private communication satellite Bluebird. “We are looking at first week of December,” Narayanan told TOI in a separate interview.



He reiterated that Isro was also moving ahead with Chandrayaan-4 and Chandrayaan-5, or the Indo-Japanese ‘Lupex’ lunar mission. “We are working towards taking Indians to the Moon, landing them safely, and bringing them back,” he said, noting that a new heavy-lift launcher capable of placing 70–80 tonnes in low-Earth orbit was being designed for future human spaceflight to the Moon.

On Gaganyaan, he said nearly all key technologies had been developed. “About 90% of the work is done. Before the crewed mission, we will carry out three uncrewed missions beginning this year. The crewed mission may happen by 2027,” he said.

Narayanan also highlighted new infrastructure and industrial partnerships. The government, he said, had approved a third launch pad at Sriharikota, budgeted at “a little more than Rs 4,000 crore”. Work had begun on the semi-cryogenic engine and on the Bharat Space Station, targeted for placement in orbit by 2028.

India currently has 56 satellites serving civilian and strategic purposes. “In another three to four years, this number will triple,” Narayanan said. The NavIC navigation constellation, too, will be completed within 18 months with three new satellites.

He credited the expansion of India’s space sector to reforms rolled out in 2020. “Earlier, there were one or two startups; today, there are more than 300,” he said. “We are hand-holding them — we grow together as a country.”