Private space startups gain from Isro's support, but face significant risks

While Isro is deservedly lauded for its cost-effectiveness, there is excessive focus on achievements such as developing moon launch vehicle for $70 mn, when nations like US spend a billion on project

The space, rocketry and ballistic missile sectors in India are undergoing a period of profound churn. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) — the nodal agency for boosting the private sector’s role in the space economy — is set to transfer the technology for an entire rocket, the small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV), to private industry. This is expected to enable Indian companies to design and build small rockets, enhancing their contribution to the country’s growing space sector. In the secretive world of rocket development, this is, perhaps, the first-ever example where a national space agency has transferred the full design of a launch vehicle to the private sector.

With private companies getting full access to SSLV technology and the right to bid for it, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will co-develop it so that, in the long term, many more companies can build on SSLV technology for delivering small payloads to Near Earth Orbits (NEO), where they can have both military and civilian usage. Over time, it is likely that technology for heavier and more capable rockets — such as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) — will also be transferred.

Meanwhile, the military agency that oversees strategic space and rocketry — the Defence Research and Development Organisation — has been significantly more cautious, and for appropriate reasons. In charge of developing delivery vehicles for nuclear payload missiles, these are mission-critical, defence-critical, national security-critical technologies. They cannot be handed over to private sector agencies without due deliberation. They too are eventually slated for privatisation, but through a select group of chosen companies.

Furthermore, there is eminent sense in firewalling a national military space programme from a country’s commercial programme, simply to insulate the latter from the possibility of sanctions. At the same time, the ongoing developments that excite a lot of private companies are in products developed for national security purposes, where there is potential dual use for both defence and for non-defence purposes. Within the US, far-reaching developments inside the defence laboratories go on to become profitably commercialised. Similarly, many Indian private companies would be eyeing cutting-edge defence technologies that are becoming available, which can potentially be commercialised as well.

There remain dimensions, however, that continue to carry significant risk. Prime among them is that, as with most defence related investments, there is the risk of a single buyer. While investors love companies with a wide range of customers, defence products usually have just a single buyer, the Government of India. Also, defence-related contracts are often single bid; and awarded to companies based on best performance — preferably by placing one’s bet on companies that are creating high-quality fundamental technology.

The US has witnessed tremendous success with expanding its space programme from its government agency — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — to include private companies like Blue Origin, SpaceX, Planet Labs and others. France has achieved similar success with ArianeGroup. India, seeking to follow those examples, opened up its space policy in 2017-2018, spurring the first wave of private Indian space companies. These were typically promoted by technocrats with Isro backgrounds, who brought along a wealth of education and experience.  Isro is already one of the world’s most successful space agencies, its success riding not just in the capabilities and the technology it has built, but also the string of successes and the experience of its people.

People talk up Isro’s success in achieving ambitious goals on shoe-string budgets. However, Isro is not given enough credit for achieving that success without significant international support. Isro developed indigenous technologies and delivered high-end capabilities that are quite remarkable.

While Isro is deservedly lauded for its cost-effectiveness, there is excessive focus on achievements such as developing a moon launch vehicle for $70 million, when countries like the US spend a billion on a project. In fact, thrift is just a small aspect of Isro’s success. Even with lavish funding, generating the assurance of a reliable launch takes an organisational ethos, culture, knowledge and experience that cannot be bought with money. It has to be earned. India’s space scientists have earned it and Isro’s former employees are now starting companies out of it.

Four classes of companies

The first of India’s space-oriented companies, which includes firms such as Pixxel and Dhruva Space, led the first wave of private players. Now that wave is spreading to four functionally differentiated classes of companies. The first of these, which include companies such as Skyroot Aerospace and AgniKul Cosmos, are in the business of launching space vehicles. The rockets that they launch will eventually deliver payloads from low earth orbit  all the way out to polar and geostationary orbits.

The second class of private space players deals with payloads, such as satellites. Satellites are becoming one of India’s biggest differentiators for self-reliance. Traditionally, India needed to import launch systems to put satellites into orbit, until PSLV and GSLV came about. Once we operationalised PSLV and GSLV, we took direct control of where we were able to put satellites and how we could control them. India also created its own equivalent of Russia’s Globalnaya Navigazionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, or Global Navigation Satellite System, which consists of 24 satellites, as opposed to the 31 used by the US global positioning system (GPS).

India’s vast natural resources remain unexploited in the absence of the right imagery. Until 7-10 years ago, we were paying Landsat, a US-based satellite firm, to detect resources under our own land. Today, thanks to Isro and a wide variety of satellite manufacturers, we have satellites in space that tell us exactly where our water, mineral and fishery resources are. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed he had located 1,300 islands along our coast that were not on any maps until we launched our own satellites and mapped them.

The third class of companies takes the data generated from these space related agencies and translates them into processed information. In India, this has provided the government accurate land holding records, with clear satellite mapping of the land boundaries. Another example is a company called Pixxel, which uses satellite data and hyperspectral imaging— imaging across multiple spectra, not just the visible or infrared—to create products.

The fourth class of companies, called “pick and shovel” companies, are ancillary to the entire system. These require a lot of support — everything from testing, small product items, and packaging. Satellites have thousands of components including semiconductor companies, vibration testing companies to propellant filling companies.

On the fringes of these companies, venture capital (VC) investors are starting to play their role. Last week, I met two Indian-origin investors from a VC firm called Rocketship.vc. They said that startups are starting to benefit from a mentorship role being played by Isro. Greater involvement by the government would complete the circle.