ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said the first rocket will lift off from the new Kulasekharapatnam launch site in Thoothukudi district next year, widening India's launch infrastructure.

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• Narayanan announced on November 1, 2026, at Chennai airport that work is underway on a new launch site at Kulasekharapatnam in Thoothukudi district.
• The first rocket from the site is targeted for March or April 2027, according to the ISRO Chairman.
• The new site is separate from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, from which NVS-03 was launched on October 30.
• On October 25, Narayanan had said India plans to have four functional launch pads by 2029.
• He said NVS-03, launched on October 30, was raised by about 5,500 km from its initial orbit of around 38,000 km using its own propulsion.
• Further manoeuvres are planned to take NVS-03 to its target trajectory, and a minimum of four satellites are needed for complete NavIC service.
• Narayanan said NavIC technology will serve public safety, aircraft landing and take-off at airports, and ship navigation.
• He said India currently has 56 satellites but needs thousands more to meet its monitoring and communication needs.
• About 8,000 experiments have been conducted for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight project, with unmanned test flights planned before any crewed mission.
• Chandrayaan-4 is scheduled for launch in 2028, and work is also underway on Chandrayaan-5.
• ISRO has obtained about 37 terabytes of data from space and solar science studies and has published it for researchers and the public.

Tags: Kulasekharapatnam, ISRO, Gaganyaan