The first rocket launch from ISRO’s new spaceport at Kulasekharapatnam is set for March or April 2027, ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan has said. Narayanan told reporters at Chennai airport that construction and development work at the new launch facility in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district is progressing steadily. The site will become the country’s second spaceport, after the long-established Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, and it is built for small satellite missions.
What Kulasekharapatnam will launch first
The first launch from Kulasekharapatnam will be a rocket from the new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) launch complex, which is designed for polar satellite launches of up to 500 kg. The facility is planned to handle 20 to 25 launches a year once it is running at full capacity, though early operations will almost certainly start well below that figure. Narayanan did not say which rocket will fly first, and no specific launch date has been announced. The Prime Minister will announce the date at the appropriate time, according to earlier statements from the space agency.
The scale of the site is already clear. Nearly 2,300 acres have been acquired by the Tamil Nadu government and handed over to ISRO for the project, and the complex is being built on about 2,000 acres of coastal land at an allocated budget of Rs 985.96 crore. The facilities include stage-preparation and vehicle-integration buildings, a launch pad, rail-track systems, range systems, checkout systems, telemetry and telecommand systems, safety and firefighting facilities, and civic amenities. ISRO is targeting December 2026 for construction to be complete, ahead of the first launch early next year.
Kulasekharapatnam and the four-pad plan
Kulasekharapatnam is one part of a wider expansion of India’s launch infrastructure. Narayanan said India would have four operational launch pads by 2029, including a third launch pad at Sriharikota and the SSLV launch complex at Kulasekharapatnam. He was speaking in Chennai on the sidelines of a graduation ceremony at the Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, where he also defended the decision to involve private companies in operating the upcoming spaceport, saying it would help strengthen the country’s space ecosystem. Operations of the SSLV and the spaceport itself have been shifted to a private company, though ISRO retains ownership and overall control.
The project has moved in stages since Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone on 28 February 2024. To mark the occasion, ISRO launched an RH-200 Rohini sounding rocket from the site, the first rocket ever launched from Kulasekharapatnam. Construction of the launch facilities officially began on 5 March 2025, and Narayanan laid the foundation stone for the launch pad itself on 27 August 2025. The chairman said when the foundation stone was laid that all the work would be over by December 2026, and that a rocket launch was planned by the fourth quarter of next year.
Why Kulasekharapatnam sits where it does
The site was chosen for its position on Tamil Nadu’s south-eastern coast, south of Sri Lanka, which suits the southward flight path of polar launches. A rocket heading for a polar orbit from Sriharikota must dogleg around Sri Lanka, while Kulasekharapatnam offers a straighter route to the south. That is the practical reason for a second spaceport, and it is why the complex is built around the SSLV rather than larger rockets. The site will also serve commercial rockets, giving India’s small satellite industry a dedicated launch point.
A second spaceport matters because Sriharikota has carried every Indian orbital launch so far, and demand for small satellite launches is growing. The SSLV is built for quick, low-cost launches of small payloads, and a dedicated complex lets those flights run without competing for pad time with larger missions. The same remarks from Narayanan put Chandrayaan-4, the planned Moon sample-return mission, on target for launch in 2028.
Work is going on successfully at the site, Narayanan told reporters in Chennai, and the first rocket will be launched from there next year.