Reaching for the Moon: A Supply Chain Viewpoint on Chandrayaan-3

By Vikas Pawar

From an awe-inspiring launch to its carefully planned landing, a space mission captures the marvels of
scientific exploration. And such undertakings takes on a special significance when they unfold closer
to home in India. As Chandrayaan-3 successfully took off on 14th July, 2023 from the Satish Dhawan
Space Centre, the mission’s progress across extensive cosmic distance was being watched with bated
breath. Given that the ghost of failed landing of Chandrayaan-2 lingered in our minds, the success of
this edition would symbolize a momentous step forward for humanity's collective pursuit of
knowledge. And on August 23rd 2023, it all happened. Our country engraved its name in lunar saga, as
Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the Moon's South Pole. Regardless of the lander mission's
outcome, the journey to reach the Moon three times itself stands as a testament to India’s scientific
ingenuity.

From a logistician’s perspective, an intricately woven supply chain behind the entire mission is one of
the pivotal enablers of this remarkable endeavour. In general, every space mission's supply chain
involves various stages and components, be it design and development, scientific instruments and
optimal payloads, or integration and testing. With a lift off mass of nearly 3900 kgs, the Chandrayaan-
3 mission exemplifies how modern supply chains function in the complex network of Aerospace
vertical. The entire mission was done at a frugal budget of Rs 615 crore, approximately US$ 80 million.
Talk about maintaining an optimal balance between supply chain complexity and system costs!

While details of mission-specific supply chain have not been revealed yet and may come sometime in
future, the available data indicates the intricacies of the Indian space programme. Based on the
available data from 2020, ISRO has more than 11,000 suppliers registered and approved on its e-
procurement site. Of course, with emphasis on indigenous manufacturing and local sourcing,
procurement happens domestically, mostly concentrated around 13 key states. Only the avionics and
satellite payloads are partially dependant on import sources. Further, these numbers include local
private industry, which was only recently added to support ISRO for satellite manufacturing.

Source: ISRO website

Among these active suppliers are the who’s who of Indian manufacturing sector. Larsen & Toubro
(L&T) along with public-sector behemoths, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), Mishra Dhatu Nigam
(Midhani) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), form the top suppliers, with decades of
association with ISRO. In fact, these companies were greatly involved in the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
In their public statements related to the Chandrayaan story, company executives talked about how all
of the subsystems had been delivered to ISRO ahead of schedule.

This is a remarkable achievement considering the challenges in the aerospace supply chain,
particularly concerning components. Aerospace components often require specialized expertise and
facilities for manufacturing, leading to a limited pool of capable suppliers, which can result in supply
chain vulnerabilities and potential disruptions. A ready case study for this is the significant supply chain
challenges in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner project. The company adopted a novel approach by
outsourcing most of the manufacturing and assembly to suppliers around the globe. However, issues
arose with coordination and quality control among the suppliers, leading to delays in the program's
timeline and increased costs for Boeing.

Further, in a rapidly evolving technological landscape, safeguarding national security and sensitive
design data from cyber threats becomes a critical concern for both ISRO as well as the supplier. To
quote a case of similar breach, sensitive data related to the F-35 Lightning II program was compromised
in a cyberattack in 2018. As the F-35 program was a multinational effort, the breach affected both
Australia and the United States.

Stringent quality and safety standards, long lead times, and dependency on specialized materials,
necessitate careful inventory management to avoid impacting production schedules. The case study
of Space Shuttle Challenger exploding 73 seconds after liftoff, due to failure of an insignificant
component like the O-ring seal, acts as a grim reminder on how quality control and attention to even
the smallest details are paramount in ensuring the success of complex aerospace missions.

Given these challenges, the entire Chandrayaan programme is a showcase of Supply Chain resilience
and risk mitigation. Discovery of water molecules on the Moon's surface by Chandrayaan-1 was a
groundbreaking achievement. Chandrayaan-2 lander's experience with a hard landing on the Moon's
surface underscored the importance of accurately understanding and accounting for the challenging
lunar terrain. While the Chandrayaan-2 mission highlighted the volatile nature of such endeavours,
ISRO as an organization showcased its ability to bounce back from setbacks, learn from failures, and
continue pursuing ambitious goals. As the result of the accident, ISRO engineers had fortified
Chandrayaan-3's software and hardware, creating multiple redundancies that helped it find its way
down.

To conclude, Chandrayaan mission on the whole, has captured the entire world's imagination and
interest. The successful soft landing on the surface of the Moon makes India only the fourth country
in the world to achieve such a significant technological capability. Other developed nations have
charted elaborate plans for sending manned crafts to the South Pole of the moon in the future. With
India's lander getting to this challenging terrain first, we as a country secure a presence in the dialogue
about shaping lunar governance. Looking beyond moon, we heard about other ambitious missions
seeking to explore the Sun and other planets including Venus. The success of Chandrayaan mission is
not just about space exploration. It ushers the new era of Aerospace Supply Chain in India.
Vikas Pawar is a supply chain specialist with over two decades of expertise in collaborative logistics and
business consulting domain. With a rich background in driving efficient supply chain strategies, his
perspectives range from driving business transformation to streamlining cancer research operations.