From punching above its weight with a low-cost Mars orbiter mission to establishing itself firmly in the club of elite space-faring nations with its Moon-lander, India has enough claims to space superstardom. The foundation was laid, of course, with the early decision to have a State-run space programme. Now, the successful testing of Vikram-1, India’s first private sector orbital launcher that took off from Sriharikota on Saturday, shows where the next chapter of the country’s space story will be written.
From punching above its weight with a low-cost Mars orbiter mission to establishing itself firmly in the club of elite space-faring nations with its Moon-lander, India has enough claims to space superstardom. The foundation was laid, of course, with the early decision to have a State-run space programme. Now, the successful testing of Vikram-1, India’s first private sector orbital launcher that took off from Sriharikota on Saturday, shows where the next chapter of the country’s space story will be written. With Saturday’s launch, India became the third country in the world, after the US and China, to have private-sector capacity in orbital launch — a critical threshold demonstrating technological sophistication.
The imperative for private sector capacity in space had been clear for long. A wide band of needs — from elementary functions such as weather monitoring to far more complex operations, including commercial prospecting in the Earth’s neighbourhood — has accelerated the expansion of the global space economy in recent years. Countries are intent on harnessing whatever capacity is available: sovereign, foreign-State and private sector. India, despite its strengths of demonstrated technology, budget, and manpower, still accounts for a very low share of this economy. Supplementing State-run capacity (and, going further, freeing it up for exploration alone) calls for a thriving Indian private sector presence. This is all the more important now, with an unspoken space race already on between the US and China. Demonstrated private sector capabilities and a stellar record of the State-run programme are a unique strength in such a scenario, allowing India not just significant negotiating power but also giving it enough heft to ensure that the race does not become a bipolar one.
With the imperative defined, the question will largely be of opportunity, or rather how efficiently the potential is tapped. The incorporation of In-SPACE by the government has helped incubate a robust germ layer in the private sector. And start-up-focussed support has helped nurture this. Increasingly, it will be talent that decides whether India is able to keep up its sovereign strength in space while the private sector acquires needed momentum. There will be competition for attracting the best brains, and the manpower pipeline must be designed to keep up; signs of strain are already visible, in the instances of several space scientists exiting the public sector. Neither industry nor the public sector pillar should face a talent crunch.
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