By R. Anil Kumar
Bengaluru, April 29. The story so far: As the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) forays further into space with missions to the sun and the moon, with space telescopes, landers, and astronauts, the nation’s space sector is also expanding beyond ISRO.
With the Centre allowing 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in the space sector, the industry’s private players are eyeing a boost in funding from overseas companies and investors.
Since ISRO’s founding in 1969, several state-owned firms like the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Antrix Corporation, and private companies like Godrej Aerospace, Ananth Technologies, and Larsen & Toubro have helped it manufacture rockets, satellites, and other space components for ISRO.
However, the boost to the Indian private space sector came in 2020 when the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) was established to promote, authorise and supervise various space activities of non-governmental entities (NGEs).
Now one can see more and more companies raising more investment in India, and more and more companies have started coming up.
There are now over 190 Indian space start-ups, twice as many as a year earlier, with private investments jumping by 77 percent between 2021 and 2022, according to Deloitte consultancy.
Prior to the 2020 opening up of the sector, “all Indian space activity was under the supervision of the ISRO space agency, which managed absolutely everything,” said Isabelle Sourbes-Verger, an Indian space sector expert at France’s National Scientific Research Centre.
Despite its limited resources, India’s space programme has made huge strides, culminating with the landing of a rover on the Moon’s unexplored south-pole in August.
Before the reform, private companies could only act as suppliers for the agency. “It was no longer tenable because there is too much to do,” Sourbes-Verger said. India deepened its reform of the sector in April, unveiling a new space policy that limits the ISRO’s work to research and development while promoting “greater private sector participation in the entire value chain of the Space Economy”.
India says it accounts for two percent of the $386 billion global space economy, a share it hopes to increase to nine percent by 2030. The market is expected to grow to $1 trillion by 2040.
Indian companies have an edge when it comes to costs as the country boasts a large number of highly qualified engineers with lower salaries than their counterparts abroad.
Private playerswill certainly help speed up the research in space technology, Indian Space Research Organisation chairman S Somanath has said while interacting with space enthusiasts, through the official Instagram page of ISRO.
Replying to an observation that SpaceX, a private entity, has contributed more to space technology than most countries, Somanath said America’s tradition of encouraging private companies to involve themselves in building rocket engines and, in the case of SpaceX, to explore human flight vehicles can be replicated by India.
He said these companies are playing a crucial role in advancing technology, reducing costs and making space more accessible.
It is possible for even private companies in India to develop these kinds of capabilities, he added.
However, he said this is only possible if the government supports the private entity, “For instance, some of the technology that is owned by NASA is transferred to Space X so that they could develop faster. This is why SpaceX has made such strides, it had nearly 45 launches this year,” said Somanath.
He said already there are two companies working in India – Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos. “We are all excited to see India going this way. These companies have already tested launch vehicles. It is an interesting development,” said the ISRO chairman.
Answering a question on Chandrayaan-4, Somanath also shared an update on India’s next moon mission.
According to him, Chandrayaan-4 mission is being developed as a continuation of the Chandrayaan series.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that India intends to land on the moon in 2040. To achieve this goal, continuous moon exploration is necessary. Chandrayaan-4 will be the first step towards this objective. The mission aims to send a craft to the moon, collect samples, and bring them back to Earth. Eventually, when India is ready for human spaceflight, Indian astronauts will be sent on a Chandrayaan craft to the moon to conduct experiments and return safely,” he added.
The interaction lasted for an hour and Somanath signed off with a promise that he would be meeting again in May. The first #asksomnathisro was held on March 2. The event is an attempt to connect with the younger generation.
