ISRO (Image: x.com/isro)

India has become the fourth country, after US, Russia and China, to land on the Moon’s surface.

A look at the estimated budget of Chandrayaan would come in as a surprise. The space mission’s estimate was Rs. 615 crores which when considered to other space missions have been pointed out as cost effective.

In 2020, ISRO Chairman K. Sivan, while talking to reporters said that the budget of Chandrayaan-3 was around Rs. 615 crores, in which, the land-rover and propulsion module came up to Rs. 250 crores and the launch service came about Rs.365 crores, reported the CNBCTV18.

Taking Chandrayaan 2 and 3 into consideration, Chandrayaan 2 had a spending of Rs. 960 crores while the estimated budget of Chandrayaan 3 is only Rs. 615 crores.

Chandrayaan 3 was to be launched in 2021 and got delayed due to the pandemic. The initial funding that the ISRO requested was for Rs.75 crores, in which 60 crores was towards, machinery, equipment and other capital expenditure, and 15 crores was towards revenue expenditure head, this is as reported in 2019. For Chandrayaan 2, of the total Rs. 978 crores, Rs. 603 crores was for the orbiter, lander, rover, navigation and ground support, and Rs.375 for its Geo Stationary Launch Vehicle.

The Chandrayaan mission is considered not only more cost effective than the other missions in this series but even cheaper than some mainstream movies, Rs.2,469 crores (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) and Rs.2,386 crores (Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning).

In the 2023-24 budget, the Finance Minister had allocated Rs. 12,543 crores for the space department. Though the allotment for this year seemed to have declined, over six years, the allocation has been increasing. The greater number of projects like Gaganyaan and more being lined up explain this.

The impetus that ISRO has given to indegenisation for critical components and costs involved in pooling talent from within, along with its revenue generating arm, is said to lead to its cost effectiveness. Between the years, 2019-2021, ISRO earned about Rs. 288 crores through mission launches for private and international agencies. Its space launch services are said to grow in the coming days with India’s Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) for activities regarding this, reported the Outlook.