India's rocket science is revolutionised by space startups

By Sanjay Kumar

January 28, 2023

NEW DELHI: In November, the Vikram-S rocket was launched, marking a new turning point in India's space sector and a victory for the commercial actors who lately entered what had previously solely belonged to the government.

Skyroot Aerospace, the owners of the privately manufactured rocket, became the first private Indian business to reach space when it launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and attained an apogee of 89.5 kilometres.

Beyond the symbolic significance of being the first, the Hyderabad-based startup's co-founder, Pawan Kumar Chandana, told Arab News that they were pleased to be among the early adopters in the private space start-up ecosystem, which has begun to show its promise.

With a regulatory overhaul and the creation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center, a single-window autonomous agency under the government's Department of Space, India opened the door to private firms in the space sector in 2020. Prior to then, the nation's space projects were governed solely by the government-owned Indian Space Research Organization.

The subject competence and leadership qualities of the Indian space sector have been validated by our successful launch, according to Chandana. We are currently concentrating on creating our flagship Vikram I orbital spacecraft, which we want to launch in 2023.

2018 saw the founding of Skyroot Aerospace by Chandana and his business partner Bharath Daka. They both worked for ISRO for a long time. Daka specialises in avionics, or aircraft electronics, whereas Chandana focuses on the mechanical components of rockets.

Since the market for private enterprises opened up, Skyroot is only one of many that have appeared. Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Anil Kumar Bhatt, the director general of the Indian Space Association, told Arab News that since the organization's founding in December 2020, its membership has multiplied tenfold.

The ecosystem of private space players is expanding in India, according to him, and several new start-ups are appearing.

India has been a participant in the global space industry since the 1960s, but its present participation is barely 2% and will be worth $9.6 billion in 2020, according to estimates. By 2025, the nation hopes to achieve $12.8 billion.

There are already a little more than 100 private businesses in India's space industry, and according to Bhatt, they have garnered around $240 million in funding from venture capitalists since 2020.

Bhatt is certain that India will soon play a far larger role in the global space industry.

"Competition will reduce the cost of space exploration. Private companies' use of disruptive technology has cut launch costs by almost a quarter, according to Bhatt. "We anticipate that (India's share of the global space business) would reach over 10% within ten years."

Another Hyderabad-based, successful Indian firm, Dhruva Space, creates satellite platform subsystems. Sanjay Nekkanti, the company's CEO, applauds the government for supporting the space sector.

He told Arab News that "the present administration has been quite forthright in bringing about an intriguing revolution where private actors enjoy a fair playing field in their attempts to fulfil not only local requirements but also global ones."

Dhruva Space prepared to launch satellites up to 40 kg this year and launched two radio communication nanosatellites in November.

"We will witness a great increase in the need for satellites in the future years, fuelling growth for satellite-enabled services," Nekkanti said as India waits for the Space Act.

The potential for novel space applications is enormous, particularly if well-known aerospace corporations collaborate with industries that haven't often gone into orbit, like the pharmaceutical or agricultural industries. The impending expansion will strengthen the crucial role that satellites currently play in daily communications.

Under the terms of a Creative Commons licence, this article has been taken from ARAB NEWS. Go here to read the original article.