Miles to go: India’s share is 2-3%, but ISRO is now a full-fledged player

CHENNAI: India may be sending spacecraft to orbit the Moon and Mars, and planning to send a spacecraft to study the Sun and Venus and eventually manned space in the last four decades of this century, but its presence in the global space sector market is only two-three per cent. However, the advantage is that the major player, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has established itself as an end-to-end operator. India has a long way to go to catch up with other major spacefaring nations in terms of rocket and satellite capabilities.

The process has begun with the sector opening up in 2020 to allow private players to build/own/launch/operate satellites and rockets. A recent EY report pegs the global market size of the space sector at $447 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $600 billion by 2025.

According to an EY report, the Indian market size in 2020 was $9.6 billion, which was 0.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the country.
According to the EY report, of the 5,465 satellites active as of the end of April 22, the US has the highest share of 63 per cent, followed by China -10 per cent, Russia – three per cent and others 24 per cent.

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Last year, the Indian government said that the country has about 53 operational satellites which include communication/navigation/earth observation and science satellites. Between 2022 and 2023, there has not been much increase in the number of Indian satellites in the sky.

In terms of rocket carrying capacity, India’s heavy lift rocket LVM3 can carry a maximum of four tonnes while rockets from the US, China and Europe can carry many times more. In fact, India uses the services of Arianespace’s Ariane rocket to orbit heavy communication satellites.

“From a regional perspective, the US, China and the European Space Agency (ESA) collectively accounted for nearly 81 percent of government space spending in 2020. It is not surprising that the US leads the way with a share of 63 percent of total active operational satellites,” said EY.

The Government of India allocated around Rs 12,543.91 crore for the country’s space sector. The revenue generated by the global space industry could grow to over $1 trillion by 2040, the Indian government told Parliament, citing a 2020 study conducted by a global consulting firm.

In a bid to increase India’s share of the global space market, the government opened up the space sector in 2020, in what an industry official termed a “surgical strike”. Things are changing with the presence of private sector players.

For example, satellite manufacturer and operator Pixel has received a five-year contract from the NRO Commercial Systems Program Office (CSPO), USA, under the Strategic Commercial Enhancement Broad Agency Declaration for commercial hyperspectral capabilities.

Pixxel will provide technical hyperspectral imagery (HSI) remote sensing capabilities through modeling and simulation and data evaluation. The company has announced raising $36 million in Series B funding round with participation from existing investors Radical Ventures, Lightspeed, Bloom Ventures, GroX, Sparta and Athera, as well as new investors such as Google.

Pixel said the fresh funding will fuel plans to launch six satellites in 2024 and another 18 by 2025. Dhruv Space CFO Chaitanya Dora Surpureddy told IANS, “The low cost has opened doors for new start-ups and MSMEs, and has encouraged established aerospace companies to explore new opportunities that once seemed too expensive or difficult. Technological improvements and the advent of new technology have also attracted investors, resulting in an increase in space funding over the past few years. We anticipate more private participation here.”

Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space is involved in the manufacturing of satellite dispenser systems fitted in satellites, earth stations and rockets.
The first mission of Dhruva Space was launched on June 30, 2022, successfully testing the satellite deployment systems, followed by the launch of two satellites, Thibault-1 and Thibault-2, on November 26, 2022.

Due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, UK satellite communications company OneWeb used ISRO’s rocket LVM3 to orbit its 72 satellites. The UK company had previously tied up with Russia to put its satellites into orbit. OneWeb will seriously consider ISRO’s rockets to orbit its fleet of second generation satellites.

More foreign space companies are showing interest in Indian start-ups to build and launch satellites. Dhruva Space CEO Sanjay Nekkanti told IANS: “We are looking forward to partnering with Indian space companies. For example, Dhruva Space and French satellite service provider Kinesis have confirmed our intention to pursue technical and commercial cooperation in space in line with the MoU signed with the launch of a satellite in March 2023, which we will jointly operate.”

According to Nekkanti, the Make-in-India initiative could fuel the growth of manufacturing satellites due to the growing demand for small satellites.
“By 2025, the satellite manufacturing segment will be the second fastest growing segment in the Indian space economy. Having proven the capabilities of our full-stack technologies through our Thibeault mission in November 2022, we are very excited to be a major player here,” Nekkanti said.

On the rocket side, Prometheus, a French neo-space operator, has decided to orbit Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram rocket for its Zepetus Earth observation constellation. Last year, Skyroot Aerospace tested its rocket with a sub-orbital mission. Another rocket startup Agnikul Cosmos is also planning a sub-orbital flight for its rocket.

On its part, the Indian space agency ISRO has decided to transfer the technology of manufacturing small rockets – the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) – to private industries. According to IN-SPACe—the Indian regulator for private space sector players—Globally, with the emergence of the commercial space sector, it is expected that more than 20,000 satellites will be launched in the coming decade, as reported by Euroconsult.

For India to capture a significant share of the commercial launch services market, it is essential that the country’s total lift off capacity be increased exponentially by several folds. For this purpose, Indian private players also need to complement ISRO’s launch capability by allowing them to own and operate launch vehicles developed by ISRO.

Earlier, ISRO had selected the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-Larsen & Toubro consortium to build five Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLVs). The Indian space agency is now in the process of developing a rocket that can carry more than four tonnes of cargo.

On the policy front, the government has come out with a new space policy and work is underway on a new policy for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
With the development of end-to-end capability in the space sector and the entry of the private sector, the only way for the Indian space industry to go is up. Signs of this are already visible.