Moon to sun: India eyes lion’s share in space economy

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, September 2

With two successful back-to-back space missions to the moon and now the sun — Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1 respectively — India is eyeing a lion’s share of space economy in the near future.

Currently, India accounts for 2 per cent of the global space economy, which was close to USD 447 billion in 2020, far behind the major players, China and the US.

But projections are set to change, top department of space officials said on Saturday, citing the two big recent launches and preparations in place for the trial launch of India’s first human spaceflight Gaganyaan by early October.

While domestic projections are that India’s current 8 billion USD space economy will reach 40 billion USD by 2040, top global consultancy firm ADL, which provides insights into industry performance, recently projected that the Indian space economy could even touch up to 100 billion USD by 2040 on the back of expanding space budget. India’s present space budget is nearly 1.93 billion USD a year, a fraction compared to the US (61.97 billion USD) and China (12 billion USD).

“The soaring reputation of the Indian space agency, ISRO, expanding budgets, rising private participation and start-up boom will take the space economy to great heights. We have grown from four startups in 2019 to over 150 today. Our satellite launching facilities are being hired by countries across the world,” Department of Space officials said today.

They attributed the rising confidence in Indian space capacities to the phenomenal pace at which ISRO is successfully launching tough missions. “Global space agencies have been taken aback by our pace,” a government official said amid growing competition in the space market.

Awe around the successful landing of India’s Chandrayaan-3 on the unexplored lunar south pole has not died yet and the historic mission is expected to figure in bilaterals between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and heads of G20 states during the Leaders’ Summit in Delhi on September 9 and 10. The Chandrayaan-3 success is critical considering the US’ Apollo Mission in 1972, which had found the Moon to be dry but water was later estimated on the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3’s potential to send back evidence of water would be critical. Likewise, Aditya-L1 will make it possible to study the atmosphere of the sun and its magnetic properties. These energy sources can have tremendous applications on earth and will boost the Indian space economy in the future.

ISRO is also ready for precursor Gaganyaan trials and spacecraft XPoSat to gather cutting edge scientific understanding in astronomy.

Space race

• In 2020, government-dominated space sector opened for private participation through reforms
• New Space India Limited (NSIL), a PSU, allowed to own the operational launch vehicles and space assets of ISRO. Supply-based model changed to demand-driven with NSIL acting as an aggregator of user requirements and obtaining commitments
• Creation of an independent nodal agency under the Department of Space, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre, to promote, regulate space activities by non-government entities
• Liberalisation of traditional satellite communication and remote sensing sectors enabling industries to take up end-to-end activities in these domains