ISRO exit rules tightened amid reports of 100 scientists quitting

The Centre has tightened rules governing voluntary retirement and resignation of scientists working on some of ISRO's most critical programmes, following reports that more than 100 personnel have left the space agency in recent months.

In a memorandum issued on July 14, the Department of Space (DoS) directed major ISRO centres, including the UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), not to routinely approve resignation or voluntary retirement requests from Group 'A' scientific and technical personnel associated with the Gaganyaan mission and other "important missions/projects". Instead, such requests will require scrutiny by the Department of Space before a final decision is taken.

"Of late, it is noticed that there has been spate of requests for voluntary retirement and resignation from Group 'A' Scientific/Technical personnel of ISRO including those associated with the prestigious Gaganyaan and other important missions/projects severely impacting the implementation of projects of national importance," as reported by NDTV.

"In view of this, it has been decided that voluntary retirement and resignation requests from Scientific & Technical personnel associated with the Gaganyaan and other important Mission / Projects may not be accepted as a matter of routine," it added.

Under the new directive, all resignation and voluntary retirement requests from scientific and technical personnel, including those at and below the rank of scientist and engineer, must be forwarded to the Department of Space along with "clear recommendations" from the respective centre directors, who will no longer have the authority to routinely clear such requests.

The decision marks a reversal of a 2020 administrative order that had empowered ISRO centre directors and heads to accept voluntary retirement and resignation requests from Group 'A' scientific and technical personnel up to the scientist/engineer-SG level.

Apart from the UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the directive has also been issued to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), the Space Applications Centre (SAC), the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), and the Master Control Facility (MCF).

The move comes amid reports that more than 100 personnel have left ISRO in recent months, with the URSC in Bengaluru and the VSSC in Thiruvananthapuram reportedly witnessing the highest number of departures.

Among those who reportedly left ISRO was senior scientist Victor Joseph T, who had been serving as the project director of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk III Project at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). He is said to have resigned in February after leading the LVM3 project for around 13 months. The LVM3 launch vehicle is slated to power India's ambitious Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission.

Several former ISRO scientists are also reported to have moved to India's fast-growing private space sector. The industry has witnessed rapid growth since the Centre opened the space sector to private participation in 2020 and unveiled the Indian Space Policy in 2023.

India is now home to more than 400 registered space startups, which have collectively attracted investments worth around $500 million, including nearly $150 million in 2025 alone. Companies such as Pixxel, Dhruva Space, Skyroot Aerospace, Agnikul Cosmos and Bellatrix Aerospace have emerged as key players in the country's expanding space ecosystem.

The directive also comes at a time when ISRO is grappling with a series of mission setbacks. Its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), widely regarded as the agency's "workhorse", has suffered two consecutive failures within the span of a year.

In January, the PSLV-C62 mission, which was carrying the EOS-N1 Earth observation satellite along with a cluster of commercial payloads, deviated from its intended trajectory after "disturbances" were detected towards the end of the third stage.

Earlier, in May last year, the PSLV-C61/EOS-09 (RISAT-1B) mission failed to place the satellite into its planned 529-km sun-synchronous orbit following a sudden chamber-pressure drop about 203 seconds into the flight's third stage. The anomaly forced mission termination and resulted in the loss of the radar satellite.

Even as it navigates these challenges, ISRO remains focused on an ambitious pipeline of future missions, including Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan-4, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) and Mangalyaan-2.