Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi interacted with space industries, startups and academia today (On December 14, 2020) to encourage their participation in space activities. The Union Cabinet led by the Honourable Prime Minister took the historic decision in June 2020 to open up the Space sector and enable the participation of Indian private sector as a co-traveler. As per the Cabinet approval, the approach towards space activities in the country will shift from a ‘supply-based model’ to a ‘demand-based model’. With the creation of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), the reforms will provide level playing field for private companies and start-ups. Subsequently, several industries have submitted proposals with the newly created IN-SPACe under Department of Space. The proposals pertain to a vast range of activities including satellite constellation, small satellite launch vehicles, ground station, geospatial services, propulsion systems and application products.

Today’s interaction meeting was represented by eight space industry participants in interactive mode with Honourable PM comprising of Shri Sunil Bharti Mittal from Bharti Enterprises, Shri Jayant Patil from Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Shri Srinath Ravichandran from Agnikul Cosmos Pvt Ltd, Shri Pawan Kumar Chandana from Skyroot Aerospace Ltd, Colonel H S Shankar from Alpha Design Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Shri Rakesh Verma from MapmyIndia, Shri Awais Ahmed from PIXXEL India and Smt Srimathy Kesan from Space Kidz India. Seven other industry representatives participated as observers in the session.

The control centre is envisaged to function as a hub of all SSA activities within India. Concurrent processing of data from the upcoming observational facilitiesfor space objects’ orbit determination, correlation and catalogue generation will take place here. There will be provision to schedule and remotely operate the observational facilities from the control centre. Other core SSA activities willcompriseclose approach analysis between ISRO’s satellite and launch vehicles, timely dissemination of advance alerts on upcoming critical conjunctions for collision avoidance of operational assets, prediction of atmospheric re-entry of derelict satellites and rocket bodies. In addition, dedicated labs will also be set up in this control centre for Space Debris mitigation and remediation, compliance verificationof UN/IADC guidelines andvarious R&D activities. The R&D activities will encompassspace object fragmentation and break up modelling, space debris population and micrometeoroid environment modeling, Space Weather studies, Near Earth Objects and planetary defence studies etc. The establishment of ISRO SSA Control Centre marks an important milestone towards enhancement and augmentation of ISRO’s SSA capabilities, paving the way for greater self-reliance under the ambit of “Atmanirbhar” Bharat.

Honourable Prime Minister, in his address, underlined the need to strengthen the professional talent pool of the country to empower the field of space. He appreciated Department of Space for the initiatives in accelerating the space reform activities by supporting and handholding the industries. This can take the country to greater heights with faster speed. He assured that the government will do its best in making industry-friendly policies to support the innovative ventures. He expressed hope and confidence that this initiative will create high technology jobs for our youth from IITs, NITs and other engineering colleges. This will also ensure long-term development of the country and society and change the lives of the poor people.