India will have four launch pads by 2029, ISRO's chairman said on 24 October 2026, with a third pad at Sriharikota and a new SSLV launch complex at Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu

ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said on Saturday, 24 October 2026, that India will have four functional launch pads by 2029, up from the two at Sriharikota today. He was speaking at a graduation ceremony at a private university in Chennai, in remarks carried by the New Indian Express from PTI. The two additions are a third launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and a dedicated launch complex for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) at Kulasekarapattinam, in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu.

Narayanan described the Kulasekarapattinam site as a 2,000-acre complex with integration buildings, launch pads, rail-track systems, and telemetry, tracking and command systems. He said ISRO would not be privatised but “will handhold startups and private enterprises” as demand for satellite launches rises. Moneycontrol, reporting the same remarks on 26 October, adds that actual capacity will depend on construction, commissioning and rocket availability.

The two pads in use now

The Cabinet’s January 2025 release explains what the existing pads do. India’s launch vehicles rely on the First Launch Pad and the Second Launch Pad, both at Sriharikota. The First Launch Pad was built about 30 years ago for the PSLV and also supports the SSLV. The Second Launch Pad was built mainly for the GSLV and LVM3, has operated for almost 20 years, and launched Chandrayaan-3. The release says it is getting ready for the human-rated LVM3 for the Gaganyaan missions, the first of which is the uncrewed G1 flight.

Private rockets now share the same spaceport. Skyroot’s Vikram-1 reached orbit from Sriharikota on 18 July 2026, the first orbital launch by a private Indian company, according to ISRO.

The third pad at Sriharikota

The Union Cabinet approved the Third Launch Pad on 16 January 2025, at a total of Rs 3,984.86 crore for the pad and its associated facilities. The release says it is designed for ISRO’s Next Generation Launch Vehicles, for LVM3 with a semi-cryogenic stage, and for scaled-up versions of the new vehicle. It will also stand by for the Second Launch Pad and add capacity for future human spaceflight missions.

The release ties the pad to two goals, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035 and an Indian crewed lunar landing by 2040, and says the heavier vehicles those need cannot be served by the existing pads. It sets a target of 48 months, or four years.

The Tribune, reporting a reply the government gave Parliament in August 2025, listed four milestones: civil works by May 2028, fluid systems and propellant storage by July 2028, pad facilities by September 2028, and commissioning by March 2029. The chairman’s 2029 date for four pads matches that schedule.

Why Kulasekarapattinam

ISRO says the Tamil Nadu complex is meant primarily for polar launches of the SSLV, which carries satellites of up to 500 kg. It adds that the SSLV can fly from Sriharikota for inclined orbits and from Kulasekarapattinam for polar ones.

TechCrunch’s report from the foundation-stone day gives the reason in fuel terms. A rocket from Sriharikota heading for polar orbit has to curve south to avoid Sri Lanka, which costs fuel, while Kulasekarapattinam can launch directly south over the Indian Ocean. ETV Bharat’s December 2025 report, which draws on a PTI interview with the Satish Dhawan Space Centre’s director E S Padmakumar, says the site has no land to its south.

What has been built

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the complex on 28 February 2024. Business Standard put the cost at about Rs 986 crore, with room for 24 launches a year and 35 facilities. ISRO fired a Rohini RH-200 sounding rocket from the site the same day, TechCrunch reported.

Construction of the main facilities began on 5 March 2025 with a ground-breaking for three of them: two upper-stage assembly buildings and a launch service building, ISRO says. On 27 August 2025 Narayanan laid the foundation for the launch pad itself. ISRO’s release of 29 August 2025 said construction was progressing on 32 of the 33 major facilities, and listed the rest of the complex: vehicle integration buildings, rail track systems, range systems, checkout systems, telemetry and telecommand, safety and firefighting facilities and civic amenities. It adds that the mobile launch structure, the platforms and the vibration isolation systems were designed by the Sriharikota centre, and that radars and telemetry equipment are being built in-house and through industry partners.

Reports give the site’s area differently: 2,000 acres in the chairman’s October 2026 remarks, 2,300 acres in August 2025 coverage by Deccan Chronicle, and 2,350 acres in TechCrunch’s 2024 report. DT Next, citing Daily Thanthi in August 2026, gave 2,233 acres as the land acquired.

Who will use it

ISRO says the complex is for SSLV launches and for rockets from non-government entities. The SSLV is a three-stage, all-solid vehicle that ISRO designed for quick turnaround. SSLV-D3 flew on 16 August 2024, and the then ISRO chairman S Somanath declared the vehicle’s development process complete, SpaceNews reported.

Industry is taking over production. On 10 September 2025 NewSpace India Limited, ISRO, IN-SPACe and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited signed a technology transfer agreement for the SSLV, ISRO says. Deccan Herald reported that HAL won the contract with a Rs 511 crore bid against two other consortia, and that over two years it will build two SSLVs with ISRO’s help. After that period it can change the design and use its own suppliers, according to IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Kumar Goenka. How private firms get permission to launch is covered in our explainer on the 2023 space policy.

Tamil Nadu is preparing for the neighbours. The state’s Space Industrial Policy 2025 calls Kulasekarapattinam India’s second spaceport and lists Agnikul Cosmos, a launch-vehicle start-up, among Tamil Nadu space companies.

The dates, as of 5 November 2026

Speaking to reporters at Chennai airport on Sunday, 1 November 2026, Narayanan said the first rocket from Kulasekarapattinam is expected in March or April 2027, according to DT Next and Deccan Chronicle. In August 2025 he had said all work at the complex would be over by December 2026, with a rocket launch planned in the fourth quarter of 2026. The Third Launch Pad’s commissioning date, in the government’s reply to Parliament, is March 2029.