A PSLV rocket carrying the X-Ray Polarimetry Satellite (XPoSat) lifts off from the Sriharikota spaceport, January 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: ANI/ISRO

With no major space missions slated for 2024, the Department of Space has recieved only a nominal hike of 4% in its allocation in the Interim Union Budget for 2024-25, from ₹12,545 crore to ₹13,043 crore. The Indian space programme will spend much of the year on pre-launch testing milestones for the lunar exploration (Chandrayaan) and human spaceflight (Gaganyaan) missions, and some other projects.

In 2023, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched and successfully executed its long-awaited Chandrayaan-3 mission, to soft-land a robotic instrument on the moon. ISRO also launched the Aditya-L1 mission to study the sun and the XPoSat — short for ‘X-ray Polarimetry Satellite’ — mission to track and study neutron stars and black holes from space. India also signed the Artemis Accords to participate in the United States’ multilateral programme to return humans to the moon by 2025.

Also read: Budget 2024 live updates

The major launches slated for 2024 include an uncrewed Gaganyaan test flight, the third developmental flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, and the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission. ISRO scientists and engineers have also been working on propellants, satellite propulsion systems, new launch vehicles, and technology transfer to the industry.

Spaceflight startups may benefit

In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore, with five-decade interest-free loans, to boost private sector investment in research and development. While the details are not clear, India’s nascent private spaceflight sector and its 200 or so startups are expected to benefit from this infusion. The revenue expenditure of IN-SPACe, the nodal agency setup by the Union Cabinet in 2020 to oversee the activities of this sector, also increased 24%.

Similarly, revenue for space technologies — which includes work on Gaganyaan and the development of systems for new launch vehicles and spaceflight missions — increased 27%.

Also read: Where does the money come from and where is it allocated?

The 8% increase in the allocation for space technologies is, however, out of keeping with the work planned on the next two missions in the Chandrayaan programme: Chandrayaan 4 and the Lunar Polar Exploration mission, and a partially reusable launch vehicle, among others. Then again, the Department of Space underutilised its allocation for space technologies in 2023-2024 by more than ₹1,500 crore.

Finally, expenditure for INSAT satellite systems was halved from ₹531 crore in 2023-2024 to ₹276 crore in 2024-2025, with capital expenditure dropping by 60%. ISRO is expected to launch the INSAT-3DS meteorological satellite later this month.