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Mahesh

05/04/24 06:21 AM IST

India’s private space sector boom and ISRO’s role

In News
  • 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.
History of ISRO’s commercialisation
  • Early partners of ISRO include Data Patterns, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Larsen & Toubro, and Godrej Aerospace, which helped manufacture auxiliary components.
  • While production of launch vehicles, satellites, spacecrafts, and boosters was mainly handled by ISRO (in-house or in collaboration with international partners), these companies helped fabricate spacecraft components, satellite systems, ground stations, satellite and ground station control systems, rocket engines, and communication systems
  • In 1992, the Department of Space (DoS) spun off Antrix Corporation Ltd., a wholly government-owned company under ISRO’s administrative control, to promote, market and deliver commercial products of ISRO to international companies.
  • Antrix is the conduit between ISRO and its private industry partners to facilitate technology transfer, assess financial and commercial viability of joint ventures and develop the industrial capabilities of the Indian space sector.
Antrix core tasks
  • Providing satellite communication services via the Indian National Satellite system (INSAT)
  • Providing launch services for commercial satellites aboard ISRO’s polar and geosynchronous satellite launch vehicles – PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mk-III for foreign customers.
  • Providing data from the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite to international users,
  • Building and delivering satellites and satellite sub-systems
  • Provide technical consultancy and facilitate transfer of ISRO’s technologies
NSIL
  • The Centre established NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) – a public sector undertaking run by the DoS, to boost indigenous production of various ISRO space products by the industry consortium.
  • Like Antrix, NSIL too is a commercial arm of ISRO, offering launch services, building satellites and subsystems, remote sensing services, technology transfer and producing small and polar satellite launch vehicles in collaboration with Indian space/defence companies. While Antrix caters to ISRO’s foreign partners, NSIL focuses on its domestic customers.
Private players role
  • Older aerospace companies like HAL, Godrej Aerospace, Ananth Technologies, and Data Patterns catered mainly to manufacturing space components for ISRO.
  • HAL provides structural parts of several space components, like heat shield assembly, nose cone assembly, fuel propellant tanks, and cryogenic engines for launch vehicles.
  • Godrej Aerospace manufactures Liquid propulsion engines, complex fabricated assemblies for antennas, pods, satellite thrusters, actuators, valves, and pumps.
  • Technological firms like Ananth and Data Patterns are the core manufacturers of ISRO’s ground stations, nano satellites, automated test equipment, printed circuit boards (PCB) for various controllers (digital, analog, radio or microwave frequency, laser,power), sub-systems of satellites – telemetry, communications, altitude & orbital control units, sensors, payloads, launch vehicle control units for navigation, power, stage integration, servo controls and inertial sensors.
  • Start-ups began to take root in India in the early 2010s with the first space start-up, Dhruva Space Private Limited, being established in 2012 in Hyderabad.
  • Soon after, several other space start-ups cropped up in India: Bellatrix Aerospace (2015), Aadyah Aerospace (2016), AgniKul Cosmos (2017), Manastu Space (2017), Skyroot Aerospace (2018), Satellize (2018), and Pixxel (2019), to name a few.
  • As of date, over 200 space start-ups are registered in the country, attracting investments worth ₹1000 crore in 2023 itself.
Dhruva Space
  • Based in Hyderabad, Dhruva Space was founded by Sanjay Nekkanti in 2012 to design customised satellites, ground stations and launch services from ground or space.
  • With 80-odd members, Dhruva Space manufactures satellites for missions in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and beyond, orbital deployers (a system to launch small satellites/payloads), ground stations, antennas and space operations command system – a module which monitors, controls, tracks satellites, and payloads remotely.
  • It also offers launch services for satellites from the ground via launch vehicles and from the International Space Station (ISS) using orbital deployers, as well as customised payloads.
  • Dhruva Space’s indigenously developed 1U, 3U and 6U Satellite orbital deployers have been successfully tested and launched in ISRO’s PSLV missions in 2022 in 2023, after being authorised by IN-SPACe.
  • The company is also currently building a 2.8 lakh square-foot spacecraft manufacturing facility in Hyderabad after closing its third round of seed funding, which raised ₹22 crores in October 2021 via institutional investors like Indian Angel Network and Blue Ashva Capital.
Skyroot
  • Skyroot was founded in 2018 by Pawan Chandana and Bharat Daka in Hyderabad and specialises in manufacturing space launch vehicles.
  • In 2020, the company became the first private Indian start-up to successfully test liquid propulsion engines as well as a 3D printed cryogenic engine.
  • It has test-fired its own rockets Vikram-S and Vikram-I.
  • In November 2022, it launched India’s first private rocket, Vikram-S, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on a suborbital flight.
Agnikul Cosmos
  • Similar to Skyroot, Agnikul Cosmos, a start-up manufacturing space launch vehicles, was incubated at the Indian Institute of Madras by Srinath Ravichandran and Moin SPM in 2017.
  • After testing its single-piece 3D printed engine Agnilet in 2022, it also inaugurated India’s first private mobile launchpad ‘Dhanush’ and the Agnikul mission control center at Sriharikota in the same year.
  • Due to its mobility, ‘Dhanush’ is launch location-agnostic (can be set up at any launch site) and will be used to test fire its transportable launch vehicle Agnibaan, which can deploy small satellites to Low Earth Orbits.
IN-SPACe
  • IN-SPACe was set up as a single-window, independent, nodal agency to authorise, promote and supervise space activities of private non-governmental entities.
  • The agency will overlook NGEs’ activities such as building launch vehicles, satellites, sharing infrastructure and premises under ISRO/DoS control and establishment of new facilities and infrastructure.
  • It also monitors and evaluates proposals from NGEs and issues authorisations for space activities such as launches and test firing.
  • IN-SPACe also provides technical incubation for start-ups in their infancy and promotes space tourism, facilitates the start-up ecosystem and boosts student participation.
  • Since its establishment, IN-SPACe has signed 45 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with NGEs to support them in space activities.
ISRO’s role – then & now
  • With the opening up of the sector and the above-mentioned slew of reforms, the Centre aims to boost Indian space economy from its current worth of $8 billion (2% of global space economy) to $100 billion by 2040.
  • Since 2020, start-ups have successfully launched their own satellites, sub-orbital launch vehicle and also established a portable launchpad and a private mission control centre within the ISRO campus.
  • Despite the increased participation of private companies in the Indian space sector, ISRO remains its driving force. As of 2023, ISRO has launched 424 foreign satellites since the 1990s, of which 389 were launched since 2014 generating $174 million from foreign satellite launches and £256 million from European satellite launches.
  • With scheduled missions to moon, sun, mars, deep space explorations and several satellite launches, ISRO will continue to lead the sector – albeit partnering with start-ups for manufacturing smaller subsystems.
Source- The Hindu

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