India sees commercial space as a very lucrative industry and is keen to build small satellites and shake up the big players like SpaceX and Blue Origin with cheap orbits. And there’s immense potential in the space-for-earth economy.
The space-for-earth economy comprises telecommunications and internet infrastructure, national security satellites, earth observation capabilities, etc. This is a booming economy but is riddled with monopolization. India, like its neighbor China, is looking at decreasing costs of launch and space hardware.
AK Bhatt, Director General of the Indian Space Association, said the world has moved from satellites the size of a Boeing aircraft to the size of a laptop. He believes India can play a major role in this sector. Bhatt highlighted that India has a historical advantage in data mining and interpretation.
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India Open to Private Players
A report stated that India opened its space sector to private players and established a $119 million venture fund to support space startups. It also has plans for crewed space exploration and a mission to Venus. But its priority is commercial ventures.
However, it will not be a cakewalk for India. China has invested $14 billion into its space sector. Beijing launched 60 missions in 2023 alone, including two crewed missions.
Blaine Curcio, space and satcom industry consultant at Novaspace, said there’s been a larger trend towards more openness to commercial companies doing bigger things in China. He said this has been brought on by the rapid progress of SpaceX and Starlink.
India Has Software
Namrata Goswani, a space policy expert at Arizona State University, said India has the advantage of tech expertise and ability but added that space is tricky. She pointed out that the space industry is very competitive. “While private companies have shown that they can create a niche for themselves, we need more proof of concept.”
Aravind Ravichandran, founder of Terrawatch Space, said India is a software powerhouse and produces some of the best minds in the world in data science, machine learning, and AI. He believes that at the end of the day, it’s all about software play.
