The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will shift its focus to science experiments with dedicated missions to the Sun—Aditya—and the Moon—Chandrayaan-3 in 2023, even as the nascent start-up sector prepares to soar in the field of space applications. Is. , The coming year will also witness a series of experiments on India’s first manned space flight – Project Gaganyaan – the first unmanned mission is expected in the last quarter of 2023 with the aim of validating the performance of the human-rated launch vehicle, the orbital module propulsion system . and recovery work.
ISRO Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh told Parliament this month that there are plans to conduct the first runway landing experiment (RLV-LEX) of the reusable launch vehicle early next year from the Aeronautical Test Range in Chitradurga, Karnataka.
Indian start-ups that marked their arrival with a sub-orbital flight by Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-S rocket, the first by a private sector company and the launch of Pixel’s hyperspectral satellite Shakuntala, spacex Falcon-9 rocket in April and Anand aboard ISRO’s PSLV in November.
Skyroot Aerospace, which launched India’s first privately developed rocket in November, plans to put a customer satellite into orbit sometime next year, while Agnikul Cosmos, a start-up on the IIT-Madras campus, has also Have your test flight planned. Highly customizable fireball rocket.
“We are developing six commercial hyperspectral imagery satellites that will be ready for launch next year,” said Pixel co-founder and CEO Awais Ahmed.
Ahmed said many more rocket companies around the world will see their first orbital launches succeed, prompting a rocket-themed Game of Thrones as they vie for the same set of customers sending satellites into space.
The start-ups eyeing the vast space applications market in the country, which was earlier the sole domain of ISRO, are carving a niche for themselves in the earth imaging sector, developing rockets to launch small satellites, satellites Was designing and even planning for cheap fuel. To take tourists on a space trip.
DhruvaSpace Chief Financial Officer Chaitanya Dora Surpureddy told PTI, “The potential for innovative space applications is immense, especially if established aerospace companies partner with businesses that have not traditionally gone into orbit, such as pharmaceuticals.” , agricultural companies.”
Dhruvaspace had launched two satellites, Thybolt 1 and 2, on ISRO’s PSLV C-54 mission which demonstrated the capability to carry out amateur satellite communications that would help in ham radio operations.
Surpureddy said Dhruvaspace has already bagged its first commercial contract of Rs 20 crore for manufacturing satellites.
Indian Space Association (ISPA) Director General Lt Gen AK Bhatt (Retd) said, “The number of space startups in India has already crossed 100 and these startups have raised over $245.35 million (around Rs 2,000 crore) in funding.” nourished.” told PTI.
Agnikul also inaugurated its first launchpad and mission control center at ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota.
In 2022, the industry witnessed some major milestones with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the space arm of the conglomerate formed by Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. 860 crore contract for commercial development of the next five Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLVs).
OneWeb also signed the services of ISRO’s launch vehicle to place 36 satellites in low earth orbit from Sriharikota. A follow-up launch of another 36 satellites is expected next year.
The OneWeb contract for ISRO is believed to be the result of some aggressive bidding by Indians after the Ukraine conflict forced Russian space launch capabilities out of the market.
Chaitanya Giri, space advisor for research and information systems for developing countries, compares the aggression in the Indian space sector to that displayed by Sourav Ganguly’s cricket team.
“Our earlier approach was like that of a cricket team led by Mohammad Azharuddin – very soft and gentle. The new aggression is due to India’s growing geopolitical stature. Also, the Russian market is not doing well because of the Ukraine conflict. Chinese So is the market, now it is Advantage India.
He said Indian start-ups should also compete for international contracts and not look to ISRO for business.
Giri said, “ISRO is not an entity that maintains business for them. Indian space start-ups, MSMEs and large corporates will have to make business arrangements with each other. These B-2-B arrangements need to grow “
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