After Chandrayaan 2¡¯s successful yet incomplete journey to the moon, ISRO is full speed ahead for working on its next moon mission -- Chandrayaan 3.
And now, a recent TOI report has revealed that ISRO has asked for 75 crores more than the previously assigned budget for the mission.?
The request has been made to the Central government. Of the Rs 75 crore that is requested, Rs 60 Crore will be assigned to ¡°Meet expenditures towards machinery, equipment and other capital expenditure.¡± The remaining Rs 15 crores, on the other hand, is sought under revenue expenditure head.?
The amount ISRO is requesting, in addition, is more than 11 percent of the Rs 555 crores that it had asked before and gotten approved as a part of the original 2019-2020 budget.
Out of the total Rs 666 crores, Rs 8.6 crores have been asked for the human spaceflight program that they¡¯re working on and is scheduled for 2022. Rs 12 crores is going to be used for the development of SSLV or small satellite launch vehicle, while Rs 120 crores is for developing the launchpad for the same.
The largest demand in this has been from the UR Rao Satellite Centre. In case you didn¡¯t know it is this establishment that is responsible for assembly and testing of the satellites that have made our country and space program proud for several times in the past few years. Satish Dhawan Space Centre has also sought a considerable chunk of finances for its development. Together their amount comes to Rs 516 crores.?
The TOI report also states that certain insiders have revealed that ISRO has set up multiple committees to work on Chandrayaan 3, however it isn¡¯t agency¡¯s immediate priority with projects like Aditya (solar mission) and Gaganyaan (human spaceflight mission) on the charts.?