ISRO chairman V Narayanan said on November 1 that the first launch from the new Thoothukudi spaceport is planned for March or April next year.

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• Narayanan spoke to reporters at Chennai airport on Sunday, November 1, 2026, a day after the NVS-03 launch.
• Work is under way to set up a new rocket launch site at Kulasekharapatnam in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu.
• He said the first rocket would be launched from this site in March or April 2027.
• On October 25, Narayanan had said India would have four functional launch pads by 2029.
• Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh remains the main launch site, and NVS-03 flew from there on October 30.
• Narayanan said about 8,000 experiments have been completed for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme.
• Uncrewed test flights will precede any crewed mission, he said.
• He said Chandrayaan-4 is scheduled for 2028, and work is also under way on Chandrayaan-5.
• Narayanan put India's current satellite count at 56 and said thousands more would be needed to meet national requirements.
• He said about 37 terabytes of space and solar science data has been published on ISRO's website for researchers and the public.

Tags: Kulasekharapatnam, ISRO, Gaganyaan