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Edition #39   •   2 Jul 2025    •   7 min read

HAL, you got the Isro tech. Now don’t do a Tejas on small rockets

It's a small fish in a big pond. Will it drown in the ocean of backlogs?

by Seema Singh

It's a small fish in a big pond. Will it drown in the ocean of backlogs?

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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

The little fish has landed in a big pond.

In late June, India’s space agency, Isro, found an industry home for its baby-rocket launcher inside Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The defense PSU, recently crowned Maharatna, paid Rs 511 crore to acquire the technology to build, improvise, and commercialise small satellite launch vehicles, or SSLVs. 

While the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) continues to be Isro’s workhorse, the agency started building an SSLV eight years ago with the intention to transfer its technology to industry. It’s been evident for some years that the world is rapidly moving towards smaller satellites. And that the need for cheaper, reliable, and on-demand launches will be a tailor-made opportunity for Isro, known for its frugal engineering.

Among the three SSLV tender finalists, Isro choosing a state-owned HAL for the tech transfer can hardly be called path-breaking. (The other two contenders were the Adani Group-backed Alpha Design Technologies and state-owned Bharat Dynamics Ltd.) 

This is not a manufacturing contract; it’s a tech transfer like never before—Isro will hand-hold HAL to produce two SSLVs in the next two years. After that, HAL will own the technology, allowing it to make any changes to the design it wants, and will monetise the rocket in the way it wants. 

No company other than HAL will be allowed to make these SSLVs after two years. Until then, Isro will get SSLVs made “by other sources” because it already has 15 launch orders, according to Pawan Goenka, chairman, In-Space, an autonomous agency under the Department of Space to promote private sector space activities.

It’s kind of a lost opportunity that the same “other sources” will not be allowed to build more rockets for the Indian or global market.

We don’t have the SSLV bid details, but one hopes it’s not the inverse of L1—the lowest-bidder condition that prevails in government procurements—and the SSLV hasn’t gone to the highest bidder. Because the intent and speed of execution matter more than a few crores of tech-transfer revenue.

Don’t get me wrong. Ever since In-Space came into being in 2020, things have been moving in the fledgling space industry in India. But HAL is a behemoth that is tardy on possibly all deliverables.

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