The sun to moon: India's space sector is gearing up for an eventful 2023

This year will see missions to study the sun and the moon, and a raft of startups are gearing up to take India's space initiatives forward

From the sun to the moon to space startups, India’s space sector is geared up for an eventful 2023. The year could see the first two dedicated manufacturing clusters for developing space technology becoming a reality.  

Among the major missions lined up this year are Aditya-L, India’s first mission to study the sun, Chandrayaan-3, its moon mission, and the first phase of a human spaceflight programme called Gaganyaan. The year may also see more aggressive steps by the private sector in this space.

Pawan Goenka, chairman of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), which acts as a bridge between private space firms and the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), considers this the game-changing year for startups in the sector. 

“The year 2022 was the beginning of the private sector coming into the sector seriously and was the first year of IN-SPACe. We expect activity to increase in 2023, as a lot of those companies are set to enter into the next phase,” says Goenka. “A lot of interest will come from venture capitalists and private equity firms. In 2022, we have seen funding to the tune of around $110 million. This is quite significant as India’s total budget in the space sector is around $1.4-1.5 billion.” 

To boost the space sector, the government is pushing to increase the production of indigenously designed satellite components, launch vehicles, and geospatial navigation and monitoring systems. For this, it is set to come up with dedicated industrial areas. “IN-SPACe is in talks with multiple states to gauge their interest in setting up dedicated manufacturing clusters. The first two are set to materialise during the current year,” Goenka adds.

Private sector boom

On November 18 last year, India successfully launched its first privately developed rocket, the Vikram-S, by Skyroot Aerospace, a space startup. This year the Vikram-S rocket is aimed at validating 80 per cent of the technologies that will be used in the Vikram-1 orbital vehicle planned for launch this year.

Another success story in 2022 was the setting up of India’s first-ever launch pad designed and operated by Agnikul Cosmos, a private player, at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. According to IN-SPACe, the company is targeting its first suborbital rocket launch by February this year and an orbital launch by around November or December.  

With regard to satellites, plans by Dhruva Space, Pixxel and Azista Aerospace are the major ones in the pipeline. Azista Aerospace and Berlin Space Technologies, a German player, have joined hands to develop a satellite production capacity in Ahmedabad. These companies are set to come up with indigenously made satellites and open the doors for satellite exports from India.

In June 2022 Dhruva Space and Digantara became the first two space startups approved by IN-SPACe to launch their payloads in space. This was followed by the launch of the Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2 nanosatellites from Dhruva Space on board Isro’s PSLV C54 in November. In 2023, Dhruva is expected to come up with comparatively larger satellites, weighing about 35-40 kg. Pixxel, which launched a hyper spectral satellite called Anand last year, is also likely to add more satellites to its planned constellation of 36 satellites.

“It is a watershed year for the sector, as a lot of companies like ours are getting mature and are in a stage to commercialise. The number of startups are growing too. We might see greater public-private partnerships this year because Isro is opening up to startups like ourselves,” says Kshitij Khandelwal, co-founder of Pixxel.

The government also came up with the National Geospatial Policy recently to promote the country’s geospatial data industry and develop a national framework to use such data for improving citizens’ lives. 

“We just had the National Geospatial Policy, which also shows the outlook for 2025-2030. IN-SPACe is also trying to see what different commercialisation avenues are available. Implementation of such policies is the biggest thing to look at this year,” says Khandelwal. In addition, several other launches by startups are being planned for the year.

What does Isro have in store?

During the course of 2023, India might launch its first mission to study the sun — Aditya-L1. Through this, Isro will become the second player after the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration to mark its presence at Lagrange point (L1), about 1.5 million km from Earth. According to media reports, Aditya will study the three outermost layers of the sun — corona, photosphere and chromospheres — and also its magnetic field variations.

Chandrayaan 3, the moon mission, is likely to be launched in June 2023. This is crucial for Isro’s future plans for the moon after the failure of Chandrayaan 2. In addition, Gaganyaan’s test flight is likely to be launched during the last quarter of 2023.