Open up space, with caution

India can accelerate privatisation of the space economy by allowing easier talent mobility

Space has, even before Star Trek made the phrase popular, always been the final frontier. Exploring the unknown has come to mark not just a country’s scientific ambitions, but also become a measure of its industrial capabilities, something that marks its technological, economic, and geopolitical dominance. The US and Russia engaged in an intense competition over space in the 1960s, and it can be argued that the former’s victory in it — with the moon landing — heralded its arrival as a technology leader, something that holds true even today.

The successful launch of India’s first private orbital carrier, Skyroot’s Vikram-1, shows maintaining momentum, let alone increasing it, requires greater private sector participation. (@narendramodi X/ANI)

India, an impressive contender in space-tech, thanks to ISRO’s remarkable strides, now faces the challenge of building on its competence in delivering high-value space-tech on much smaller budgets than the US and China, its two main rivals (Russia has fallen back). PM Narendra Modi’s exhortation to private space-sector players during an interaction on Friday, to position India as a global space-tech hub recognises this.

India began pivoting towards greater private sector participation some years ago, with ISRO passing on technology. The successful launch of India’s first private orbital carrier, Skyroot’s Vikram-1, shows maintaining momentum, let alone increasing it, requires greater private sector participation. Two considerations point at this. One is the State-run programme’s raison d’être at this stage of India’s space sector evolution. Space exploration, where commercial value may not be immediately apparent, needs the State’s reserves, and splitting these reserves with the space-applications side may not be the optimal use of public funds. The US understood this decades ago. And greater private sector participation can unlock more value, faster, which can also reward the public sector: Private firms developing reusable rockets and landers can help ISRO, too. They can also raise private money more efficiently.