Chandrayaan-3: An example of PPP working to India's advantage

Chennai/New Delhi: A bunch of private and public sector companies have contributed to the success of India's third moon mission that happened last year. On August 23, 2023, India’s moon lander Vikram soft landed on the lunar soil near the South Pole.

While Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) built the rocket that carried the spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, lander Vikram and moon rover Pragyan, several private and public sector organisations have contributed to the nation’s successful mission.

The Hyderabad based Ananth Technologies Pvt Ltd delivered several critical systems for the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. These include telemetry and telecommand systems, power management systems, and DC-DC converters essential for the mission's success.

That aside, Ananth Technologies also supplied avionics packages for the LVM3 rocket that carried the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. These packages encompass a wide array of components, including on-board computers, navigation systems, control electronics, telemetry systems, power systems, and more.

According to the company, it supplied components for all of ISRO’s rockets.

India’s aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is one of the long-time contributor for ISRO’s space missions. For Chandrayaan-3 HAL supplied the propellant tanks, composite, metallic structures.

On its part, the engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) supplied critical booster segments, namely the head-end segment, middle segment and nozzle bucket flange, among other things.

Interestingly, the HAL-L&T combine has won the mandate from ISRO to build five Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) or PSLV rockets.

Mishra Dhatu Nigam supplied critical materials such as cobalt base alloys, nickel base alloys, titanium alloys and special steels for various components of the launch vehicle used in the lunar mission. The batteries for Chandrayaan-3 were supplied by Bharat Heavy Electricals. Welding Research Institute (WRI) of BHEL was also responsible for supplying bi-metallic adaptors for Chandrayaan 3, as per reports.

MTAR Technologies reportedly manufactured key parts for the Chandrayaan-3 mission, including engines and booster pumps, reports said. Godrej Aerospace reportedly produced key engines and thrusters including L110 for the core stage and CE20 engine thrust chamber for the upper stage.