Beyond the Blue Yonder

Vikas Mishra

Space-based services support the world’s defence forces with secure communication, space-based situational awareness in near real-time like Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) systems and scientific discoveries and environmental monitoring and have great potential to benefit all mankind.

Rapid advancements in space technology have opened up new avenues for its application and at the same time, there is the danger of a few nations monopolising these applications or services, resulting in greater inequalities and injustice among nations. A race to weaponise space has already started and its impact on a nation’s security is inevitable. The protection of strategic space assets is of great concern for any nation and need to be looked at with a new perspective or strategy. The day is not far when the next war would spread across all domains of land, sea, air, cyber and space as the ‘ultimate high ground.’ Taking a multi-domain perspective, the domains can be viewed as one ecosystem.

Figure 1: Organisational chart of Department of Space as per Indian Space Policy

Indian Space Policy-2023

One thing that separates outer space from other domains is that any space asset sent into outer space can influence the globe within minutes after being placed in orbit. Space laws and regulations are required for maintaining space discipline, coordination among all stakeholders and governance, rather than laying restrictions on optimum utilisation of space-based services, and promoting the business globally and collaborating with any government or private players like SpaceX/startups in the space domain.

Our country has three verticals with an aim to promote India’s military civil fusion to the space program as per Indian Space Policy 2023 civilian led by ISRO, commercial led by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) and armed forces led by the incumbent Defence Space Agency (DSA). The fusion of civil and armed forces under one roof through the creation of IN-SPACe and DSA is an important step towards liberalisation of the Indian space economy, at the same time focusing on the security requirements of armed forces.

The government has approved the ISP 2023 to boost private sector participation from vendor to OEM and increase investments in the space sector from private companies and MSMEs. To augment space capabilities, enable, encourage and develop an ecosystem for a commercial presence in space. The Indian Space Policy 2023 opens the Indian space sector to private players and establishes two new bodies, namely New Space India Limited (NSIL) and IN-SPACe (refer figure 1, Image Source-PIB), with clear delineation of the Indian Space Research Organisation's ISRO's as a solely research and development body. While the IN-SPACe is meant to act as a single window clearance and authorisation body for space launches (by private parties), the NSIL is a public sector undertaking responsible for commercialising space technologies. The Space Policy makes the Department of Space responsible for overseeing its implementation and creating a mechanism for the resolution of space disputes without any statutory power.

The policy will provide a strategic roadmap for the growth and development of India’s space program, to promote innovation, technological advancements and international cooperation and to ensure national security in the space domain. The vision of the Indian Space Policy 2023 is to ‘enable, encourage and develop a flourishing commercial presence in space’ which suggests an acceptance that the private sector and MSMEs are important stakeholders or pillars in the entire ecosystem of the dawn of the Indian space economy. The stakeholders are:

ISRO: The Indian Space Research Organisation was established in 1969 with Vikram Sarabhai as its founding head. Headquartered in Bengaluru, its parent organisation is the Space Commission. ISRO is the national space agency of India, operating under the Department of Space.

IN-SPACe: It acts as a single-point interface between ISRO and everyone who wants to participate in space-related activities or use India’s space resources.

NSIL: The probable charter of New Space India Limited is to commercialise and use research and development carried out by ISRO over the years through Indian industry partners, such as the MSMEs, as well as to promote st