Raising the first Landing Spaceports in India

As reusable space vehicles become routine, dry-landing spaceports will be crucial. India must move fast to build landing spaceports.

In 2003, the Japanese space agency, JAXA, launched the Hayabusa spacecraft to bring geological granule samples from a near-Earth asteroid, Itokawa. JAXA utilized its space and defence diplomacy with Australia in the end-stages of the asteroid sample-return mission. Their partnership in this rarefied domain is a vital exemplar that we in India should learn.

The Japan-Australia space diplomacy goes back to the 1990s when the then Japanese space agency NASDA, precursor to the current JAXA, sought to test a helicopter drop of its HOPE reusable spaceplane from an altitude of 5000 ft and dry-land it on its wheels. NASDA agreed with the Australian Department of Defence and the Australian Space Office to utilize the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) in Southern Australia, the world’s largest aerospace and weapon’s test facility.

The fruitful association made Canberra premeditate the global space industry’s future requirements, and it was then it decided to pass the Space Activities Regulation Act of 2001. This legislation opened up opportunities for partner countries to use WPA for landing their spacecraft under stipulated conditions set by the Space Licensing and Safety Office of Australia. JAXA saw this legislation as a prospect to land the Hayabusa capsule, launched from Japan, and continue its unique collaborations with the Australian Space Office. Hayabusa landed in Woomera successfully in 2010, and JAXA took the Itokawa asteroid samples to Japan. The samples were analysed by Japanese and Australian scientists with international global peer groups and their investigations yielded some of the most exciting findings about our solar system. In December 2020, Woomera extracted the capsule of the second Hayabusa spacecraft that brought back samples from the asteroid Ryugu. The samples are currently under investigation in Japan.

On the other side of the planet, the University of Arizona and NASA are leading a mission known as OSIRIS-REX, which is on its way back to Earth, bringing back samples from asteroid Bennu in 2023. Similar to Japan’s use of Woomera, the OSIRIS-REX’s mission leaders will use US’ largest overland restricted airspace at the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR). NASA’s Genesis (2001) and Stardust (2006) sample-return space capsules had earlier landed at the UTTR.

The Royal Australian Air Force oversees Woomera, and the US Air Force oversees the UTTR. The Russian Air Force extracts astronauts and cosmonauts from the Zezqazǵan landing site in Kazakhstan. The People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Forces extract space-returned Chinese capsules in the Siziwang Banner region of Inner Mongolia. These real estate typically have desolate geography, flat terrain, arid land, and are devoid of large water bodies and human habitation. These have largely been used by the armed forces to test experimental aerospace platforms since the World War days. But since 2001 these real estate have also doubled up as dry-landing sites for space-capsules.

The Indian Army’s Field Firing Ranges (FFRs) at Mahajan and Pokhran in Rajasthan are no less than UTTR or Woomera. These ranges offer full support for artillery and weapons testing, and with restricted airspaces above them, the commercial air-traffic over these regions is sparse. In that case, can these two ranges be of use for dry-landing of space capsules? And if yes, which agency should oversee it?

The Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) oversees the weapons testing and proving fields within the Mahajan and Pokhran FFRs. Under the Make in India program, the DRDO offers its infrastructure in these fields for proof, experimental, and validation tests. The DRDO is a crucial agency in the India’s Human Spaceflight Programme (IHFSP). It will soon be part of the first-ever capsule recovery processes for the Gaganyaan uncrewed and crewed missions scheduled during 2021-22.

Much like Woomera and Zezqazǵan, both Pokhran and Mahajan FFRs host armed forces of friendly countries like Russia, the United States, and France for war exercises field ranges. Since 2017, the Ministry of Defense is offering India’s private defense industry access to test their products in the testing and proving ranges and the DRDO is the go-to agency for them.

Given DRDO’s presence at the two FFRs, and a controlled access to friendly countries and India’s private sector, the government of India should contemplate to house these FFRs with space capsule recovery facilities, space quarantine center, space communications, and tracking ground station as soon as possible. But, are Gaganyaan capsules landing on ground or splashing in the seas?

The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment-1 of ISRO in 2007, too, had dropped the boilerplate capsule into the Bay of Bengal. Also, the Indian Army does not yet have an active role in the IHSFP, but Indian Navy does, which is a giveaway for plans to splash Gaganyaan capsule in the seas on its return from space.

A crewed capsule’s splashdown was classically considered a safer option than dry-landing, particularly during the Apollo-era of the 1970s. SpaceX’s crewed capsule Dragon-2 recently returned astronauts from the International Space Station using splashdown. However, the Chinese and Russian space agencies have mastered dry-landing with crewed capsules as it is easier logistically and cost-effective. The US has assigned Boeing’s Starliner human-rated space capsule to not miss on dry-landing competence. Smaller capsules bringing extra-terrestrial materials, robots, or logistics are easy to test for dry-landing. Although the article suggests that DRDO be the R&D custodian, involving the Indian Army in the IHFSP-NAC will help the larger cause of ground operations at the FFR.

A cursory glance across the competing SpaceX’s Starship, Boeing’s Starliner, and RKK Energia’s Orel or India’s AVATAR RLV indicate that the world is moving in the era of reusable space vehicles. Such space-vehicles will need dry-landing facilities. In that case, the launch facility at Sriharikota may not fit the demands. Spaceports are vital connectivity assets of the future. India should start building them as soon as possible. Mahajan and Pokhran are worth consideration.

This blog was published in the February 2021 edition of Science India magazine published by Vijnana Bharati.