ISRO's Four Launch Pads by 2029 Explained: Sriharikota's Third Pad, the Kulasekarapattinam Spaceport, and What It Means for India's Space Push
Key Takeaways
- ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan said on 25 October 2026 that India will have four functional launch pads by 2029.
- The four pads are Sriharikota's two existing pads, a third pad being developed at Sriharikota, and the new SSLV complex at Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu.
- Kulasekarapattinam's 2,000-acre coastal site suits polar launches because rockets can fly south directly over the sea; its first launch is expected in 2027.
- ISRO will not be privatised — private firms are partners that ISRO will handhold with technology transfer to handle commercial launches.
- The same announcement updated Gaganyaan (first uncrewed test within about two months) and Chandrayaan-5 with Japan (350-kg rover, about 100 days of surface experiments).
India will have four functional space launch pads by 2029, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman V. Narayanan has said, outlining a roadmap that doubles the country's launch infrastructure within three years. The announcement, made on 25 October 2026 at a graduation ceremony in Chennai and reported by the Press Trust of India, is one of the clearest statements yet of how India plans to keep pace with a global satellite boom that is straining its existing spaceports.
Today, all of India's orbital launches fly from two pads at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The plan adds a third pad at Sriharikota and completes a brand-new spaceport at Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu, dedicated to the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). Together, the four pads are meant to raise launch frequency, cut waiting times for satellite operators, and give India's fast-growing private space sector room to operate.
Narayanan was careful on one point: ISRO itself will not be privatised. Private companies, he said, are essential partners, not replacements — needed to handle commercial operations as demand grows to thousands of satellites. That distinction matters, because the expansion is as much about who launches as about where launches happen.
What was announced
Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research in Porur, near Chennai, Narayanan said India would "expand its space operations significantly with four functional launch pads by 2029, supported by an increasing reliance on private industry partnerships to handle commercial operations." The remarks were carried by PTI and reported by The Hindu BusinessLine and other outlets on 25 October 2026.
The chairman did not, according to the PTI report, elaborate on every detail of the plan — for example, the precise status of each of the additional pads. What is documented is the shape of the expansion: two existing pads at Sriharikota, a third pad being developed at the same site, and the new SSLV complex at Kulasekarapattinam. Reporting on the third Sriharikota pad's timeline varies slightly, with some accounts pointing to operational readiness around 2029, so the 2029 target is best read as the chairman's stated goal rather than a certified completion date for every single element.
The four pads, one by one
The first two pads are the ones India already uses. SDSC SHAR at Sriharikota currently operates two active launch pads, which handle the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), the LVM3 heavy-lift rocket and the SSLV. These pads have carried everything from Earth-observation and navigation satellites to the Chandrayaan lunar missions and commercial rideshare payloads.
The third pad at Sriharikota is being developed to support India's next generation of launch vehicles and heavier payloads. A third pad matters for a simple operational reason: with only two pads, maintenance, refurbishment and weather delays at one site can ripple through the entire launch calendar. A third pad at the same range adds resilience and lets ISRO prepare one vehicle while another is on the pad.
The fourth pad comes from the new complex at Kulasekarapattinam in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu. Unlike Sriharikota, which serves a mix of vehicles, Kulasekarapattinam is being built specifically around the SSLV — a small, three-stage, solid-fuelled rocket designed for quick, low-cost launches of small satellites into low Earth orbit, with a payload class of around 500 kg. The complex spans about 2,000 acres and will include integration buildings, launch pads, rail-track systems for moving vehicles, telemetry, tracking and command systems, range and checkout systems, and safety facilities.
Why Kulasekarapattinam matters
Kulasekarapattinam's location is its biggest asset. The site sits on Tamil Nadu's southern coast, which means rockets heading into polar and sun-synchronous orbits can fly south directly over the sea. From Sriharikota, such trajectories need a dog-leg manoeuvre to avoid flying over land, which costs fuel and payload capacity. A southern coastal site removes that penalty and frees Sriharikota's pads for other missions.
The project has been moving in stages. The Union government laid the foundation stone for the complex on 28 February 2024, construction activities began in March 2025, and the launch pad foundation was laid in August 2025. Reports put the first rocket launch from the site in 2027. If that schedule holds, Kulasekarapattinam will be launching small satellites well before the full four-pad target date of 2029, and it will also serve launches by non-government entities — a deliberate opening to the private sector.
Why India needs more pads now
The demand side of the story is straightforward: satellites are getting smaller, cheaper and far more numerous. Earth-observation constellations, broadband networks, Internet-of-Things connectivity and scientific missions all want regular, affordable rides to orbit. A single spaceport with two pads can only launch so often, and every delay — a technical snag, a cyclone on the east coast, a pad refurbishment — pushes the whole queue back.
More pads mean more launch windows, shorter waits for customers, and the ability to run different kinds of missions in parallel: a heavy LVM3 from Sriharikota while an SSLV lifts a batch of small satellites from Kulasekarapattinam. That parallelism is what turns a space programme from a series of showcase missions into a routine transport service — and routine, reliable access to orbit is what commercial customers pay for.
There is also a strategic dimension. Countries that can launch frequently, on their own vehicles, from their own soil, are less dependent on foreign launch providers and better placed to replace or add satellites quickly. For India, which operates its own navigation, communication and remote-sensing fleets, launch capacity is directly tied to the resilience of services millions of people use every day, from weather forecasting and crop monitoring to disaster response.
Private companies: partners, not owners
Narayanan used the announcement to draw a clear line. "To handle this expanding ecosystem, ISRO will handhold startups and private enterprises, transferring technological expertise to foster economic growth and generate thousands of high-tech jobs," he said. In other words, the state agency keeps ownership of the national programme, but private firms will increasingly build, operate and sell launch and satellite services around it.
That model is already taking shape. India's space sector was opened to private participation in recent years, and startups are now building rockets, satellites and ground systems. A dedicated SSLV complex that can host non-government launches gives those companies something they have lacked: a launch site designed around small, frequent missions rather than adapted from a large government range. The chairman's emphasis on technology transfer and handholding suggests ISRO sees its role as an anchor customer and mentor as much as a launch operator.
What this means for Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan-5
The launch-pad announcement came packaged with updates on ISRO's two flagship missions, and the connection is not accidental: both need reliable launch capacity and ground infrastructure.
On Gaganyaan, India's human spaceflight programme, Narayanan said the first uncrewed test flight is planned within the next two months, followed by two further uncrewed tests before a crewed mission. The tests will evaluate environmental control, safety systems, crew escape mechanisms and crew-module interiors under varying pressure, temperature and humidity conditions. ISRO has conducted around 8,000 ground-based experiments for the mission, and four astronaut-designates are undergoing specialised training.
On the Moon, Narayanan outlined Chandrayaan-5, a collaborative mission with Japan's space agency JAXA, featuring a 350-kg rover designed to conduct about 100 days of surface experiments, gathering data on solar radiation and mapping water-ice deposits in the lunar polar regions. Both missions illustrate why pad capacity matters: a human spaceflight programme and a lunar programme running at the same time, alongside commercial launches, cannot share two pads indefinitely.
What to watch next
Three milestones will show whether the 2029 target stays on track. The first is the initial launch from Kulasekarapattinam, expected in 2027 — a slip there would compress the rest of the timeline. The second is the first uncrewed Gaganyaan test, due within about two months of the October announcement; its outcome will shape the crewed mission's schedule. The third is the pace of private-sector launches from the new complex, which will test whether the handholding model produces real commercial cadence or remains mostly aspirational.
Watchers should also keep an eye on the finer details that the chairman did not elaborate on — including the exact commissioning schedule for the third Sriharikota pad — since those will determine whether "four functional pads by 2029" is achieved in full or in substance.
Conclusion
India's four-launch-pad plan is, at its core, a capacity story. Two pads built a world-class space programme; four pads are meant to turn that programme into a high-frequency launch service that can serve government missions, commercial customers and a growing private industry at the same time. The Kulasekarapattinam spaceport gives small satellites a dedicated southern gateway, the third Sriharikota pad adds resilience to the existing range, and the private-partnership model — without privatisation — sets the terms on which new players join.
If the milestones land on schedule, by 2029 India will not just launch more often. It will launch differently: routinely, commercially, and from two coasts. That is the real significance of the chairman's announcement, and the reason it is being watched well beyond the space community.