The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing to return to spaceflight operations in May 2026, marking the end of a three-month hiatus. ISRO Chairman V Narayanan shared this timeline with reporters in New Delhi after being honoured with the IEEE Keralam KPP Nambiar Award 2025.

The Chairman noted that the agency is focused on immediate launches as the new financial year begins, confirming that flight operations are scheduled to restart next month.

This temporary suspension of activities followed a significant setback during the first flight of 2026. The upper stage of the PSLV-C62 mission veered off its intended flight path, resulting in an unsuccessful mission.

This event was particularly notable as it marked the second consecutive failure for the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, a rocket often referred to as ISRO’s workhorse due to its historically nearly flawless record of reliability.

In response to recent enquiries in the Lok Sabha, Jitendra Singh, the Indian Minister of State for Space, clarified that the deferments of scheduled missions were due entirely to technical factors. He confirmed that a National Level Expert Committee has been established to investigate the specific anomalies observed during the PSLV-C62 flight. This committee is tasked with recommending corrective measures, and the PSLV will only return to service once these actions have been fully implemented.

While the PSLV undergoes this rigorous review, the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) has successfully finished its developmental phase. The SSLV program has now been transitioned to NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) and private industry partners for future production and commercial launches. This shift represents a significant step in the industrialisation of Indian space hardware.

ISRO now faces a demanding recovery schedule after missing six planned missions in the final quarter of the 2025-26 period. The agency enters the 2026-27 financial year with a backlog of five critical flights. The first anticipated mission is the GSLV F17, which will carry the EOS-05 satellite for a strategic user, followed closely by the PSLV-C63 mission transporting the TDS-01 technology demonstrator.

The upcoming manifest also includes the landmark PSLV-N1 flight, which will be the first instance of a PSLV rocket being realised entirely by private industry. This mission is slated to deploy the EOS-10 satellite, the Indo Mauritius Joint Satellite, and Dhruva Space’s Leap-02 mission, which carries a French-made Horus star tracker. Additionally, the first operational flight of the SSLV-L1 remains pending for a commercial client.

Finally, the agency is preparing for the highly anticipated Gaganyaan-G1 mission. This uncrewed flight test will serve as a comprehensive trial of the fully integrated hardware developed for India's human spaceflight program, representing a pivotal milestone for the nation's celestial ambitions.

Agencies