ISRO to launch 75,000 kg payload into low Earth orbit using a 40-storey high rocket

ISRO Chairman V Narayanan speaking at the 84th convocation ceremony at Osmania University in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit:
SIDDHANT THAKUR

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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that it is going to launch a rocket carrying a heavy-duty payload weighing 75,000 kilograms in a low earth orbit. “It is going to be as high as a 40-storey building,” ISRO Chairman V Narayanan has said.

“A heavy lift Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) with recoverable first stage has also been approved by the government,” he said.

Addressing students and faculty of the Osmania University at its 84th Convocation here on Tuesday, he said that the space organisation has several key projects up its sleeve. 

He said the Chandrayaan-4 programme has already been approved and it would be planned as a sample return mission. 

He was conferred Degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) Honoris Causa at the convocation. He is the 50th personality to receive the honorary doctorate.

Space mission

“At present, we are in the advanced development stages of our Gaganyaan, our human space mission, wherein we shall for the first time take Indians to space and return them back safely using our own launcher. The first unmanned mission is planned very shortly,” he said.

“The Bharathiya Anthariksh Station (BAS) shall be a reality by 2035 for which the initial modules in space shall start as early as 2027. An Indian has to land on the moon and return safely by a fully indigenous moon mission by 2040,” he said.

He said a Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM) has also been approved where the organistion would send a spacecraft to study the planet. “You can imagine the complexity involved in these missions and the degree of quality consciousness and levels to be displayed in each and every subsystem we are going to roll out.”

Tracing the history of the ISRO’s space odyssey, he said that India has emerged as a top player in the space sector, achieving several milestones ever since it launched its space programme 50 years ago.

Stating that the Mars Orbiter mission (MOM) was less expensive than an autofare, he said the total expenditure was less than the budgets of many Hollywood movies. We were the first country to successfully accomplish this mission in the first attempt.

Listing various milestones including the placing of a record-breaking 104 satellites in orbit in a single launch, development of indigenous cryogenic technology, he said the country became the fourth country in the world to achieve docking of spacecraft in space.

Published on August 19, 2025