The Indian government has publicly released the budget for ISRO, the nation’s space agency, for the year 2019-2020.
For the coming year, ISRO’s budget will increase by 15.6% to ₹12,473 crore (approximately US$1.88 billion), from ₹10,783 (app $1.62b).
The budget increase comes in spite of the partial failure of India’s major mission this year, Chandrayaan-2, during which the spacecraft’s Vikram lander was lost.
The bulk of the budget will go to space technology, which includes ISRO’s biggest upcoming mission, Gaganyaan, which will be the nation’s first crewed orbital spacecraft and the first step towards the realization of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.
For Gaganyaan, as well as all satellite development and launcher-related activities, ISRO will receive ₹8407 crore ($1.26b), a whopping 67% of the budget. This will be divided amongst ISRO’s 10 space technology centres.
For space applications, including education and disaster management, ISRO will receive ₹1,885 ($283m), the bulk of which will go to the National Remote Sensing Centre and Space Applications Centre.
Space science, including planetary, small satellite sensor and payload development, has been allocated ₹285 crore ($43m), while the budget for INSAT and GSAT communication satellite systems will be ₹884 crore ($133m).
ISRO’s next mission is likely to take place in late November, with the launch of earth observation satellite Cartosat-3 aboard the PSLV rocket. Its next space exploration mission since Chandrayaan-2 will take place in the first half of 2020, with Aditya-L1, India’s first solar probe.
More science in deep space as well as in earth orbit should be done by ISRO. The next decade looks promising with sustained human spaceflight missions, space station construction, exoplanet observatory and Mars and Venus missions