Indian rockets are in ‘great demand’ globally, but we are short of manufacturing capacity, says Ex-ISRO Chief

Former ISRO Chief S Somanath said India’s rockets are in ‘great demand’ globally, and the country is falling short of manufacturing capacity to meet the demand.

Former ISRO Chief points out global demand for Indian rockets

During a panel discussion at Accel's Advanced Manufacturing Summit in Bengaluru on August 5, Somnath said, “Indian rockets are in great demand. But the problem is availability, it’s controlled by our ability to manufacture in numbers.”

"Spacecrafts are not products that can be built and sold off the shelf. They are often custom-built, and there’s limited infrastructure to produce them at scale,” he added.

This comment from the ex-ISRO Chief comes when the global commercial space industry is growing quickly, with private Indian firms such as Agnikul and Pixxel trying to break into international launch and satellite markets.

Fellow panellist, former CEO and MD of Brahmos Aerospace, Sudhir Mishra, remarked that Pakistan’s Prime Minister has proven to be an ambassador of the Brahmos missile. “The government of India never said that we fired Brahmos. But he kept saying that India fired the missile and we could retaliate. So, a lot of technology has been generated in the country,” Mishra said.

“If you want to make a rocket engine in India, you still have to rely on organisations like Godrej for manufacturing. But they can’t put it all together themselves. The final assembly still comes back to ISRO,” Somanath explained.

Much of the discussion during the panel was on topics revolving around India's industrial base in high-tech manufacturing, especially in aerospace, defence, and electronics.

“We have good designers, but not enough people who understand manufacturing itself, tooling, processes, thermal design, or materials,” Dr. Somanath said.

Gunjan Krishna, Commissioner for Industries and Commerce for Karnataka, disclosed that many multinational firms have started establishing component manufacturing operations in India. However,  the ecosystem is incomplete.

"Assembly is happening, but we’re still trying to bring in deeper component-level manufacturing,” she said, citing instances of companies like Foxconn and Lam Research setting up shop in the state.

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