Pradeep's Space Newsletter #36

How the conflict between Russia and Ukraine impacts the Indian space programme? Part 2

Mar 10, 2022

An edited version of Pradeep’s Space Newsletter #35 was published in The Wire Science. Vasudevan Mukunth edited the copy. Since these were developing stories, I thought it best to close the open loops on various issues I had discussed in Newsletter #35.

OneWeb

OneWeb’s board of directors voted to suspend all launches from Baikonur. This was in response to the demands placed by Roscosmos on OneWeb before lift-off.

The Launch Preparation Committee at Roscosmos decided to return the rocket to the assembly building and stop all OneWeb launches from Kourou and Baikonur.

The question on everyone’s mind was what would happen to the satellites on board.

Katya Pavlushchenko @katlinegrey

The foreign specialists will leave Baikonur only after sealing up the room with #OneWeb satellites which will be removed from the Soyuz 2.1b rocket, said a source to RIA. It may take about a week. The room belongs to Starsem company and cannot be open without their permission.

[I would recommend following Moscow-based Katya Pavlushchenko for English language updates related to the Russian Space Programme. There were rumours that Russia may ban Twitter and Facebook. She suggested following updates on her Telegram channel.]

OneWeb then announced that they are now looking for alternative rockets in America, Europe, India and Japan. OneWeb had signed a letter of intent with India to launch it’s satellites in 2022 on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk-III).

However, given the backlog of satellites of national importance to India (like remote sensing, communications, Chandrayaan 3 and Gaganyaan), it is highly unlikely that India can support these launches before 2024. The PSLV productionisation is also pending with NewSpace India Ltd. (NSIL), Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) commercial arm. By productionisation, it is meant that private industry will build the PSLV moving this responsibility away from ISRO.

The rate at which we presently build the PSLV and the GSLV Mk-III is slow and we do not have the capacity to support these launches now. It is my opinion that these delays mean that India has lost an important opportunity to be a part of the global space economy.

Gaganyaan

The last edition of this newsletter had a throwaway line in the middle about the effect the war would have on Gaganyaan. It only mentioned that Gaganyaan could be delayed because of it. I then went on to talk about the delay for the semi-cryogenic engine.

There is a useful thread on the ISRO sub-Reddit that compiles how the war affects various aspects of the space programme. I will only list here how it affects Gaganyaan here, for the sake of completeness.

The Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), crew seats, view ports and Intra Vehicular Activity (IVA) suits (space suits worn within the spacecraft) were to be supplied by Russia. India is looking forward to Russian help for setting up infrastructure related to the human spaceflight missions like the Human Spaceflight Center in Challakere, Chitradurga and the wind tunnels that were to be used for testing Crew Module and the Crew Escape System.

It is not known which of these have already been delivered to India and which of these are in the pipeline. The question must be asked if this would delay Gaganyaan further.

Semi-Cryogenic Engine

A visitor to the web edition of this newsletter, left a comment on the ISRO sub-Reddit thread which formed the basis of the information on the tests pending on the semi-cryogenic engine. Thank you, Dipankar.