With the tremendous success of Chandrayan-3, India has imprinted its historic footprints on the land of Moon. Behind this unbound success, here come a few bestowing technologies and efficient brains which are conceiving these new technologies and innovations. Space technologies are the brightest blessings of science, depending on which travelling or conducting activities beyond the atmosphere of the earth was made possible.

India started its journey to the space on 19th April 1975 with launching the satellite Aryabhatta. Since then, Indian Space technologies has been creating new innovative launch vehicles like spacecrafts, satellites, space stations and orbital launch vehicles, deep-space communication, in-space propulsion, and various other technologies including support infrastructure equipment, and procedures. Powering to these high-end technologies, India is embarking on advanced and upgraded journey as a successful nation and we are enjoying trailblazing facilities like weather forecasting, remote sensing, satellite navigation systems, satellite television, and some long-distance communications systems critically rely on space infrastructure.

Tools used in Space Science
Space-tech is propelling and bulging like boiling water and with each passing day they are introducing new technologies and reshaping the existed technologies by giving them a new modification. As the days are passing, India is engrossing into new innovations and ideas. Numerous cutting-edge tools like 5G enabled advanced satellite systems, 3D printing, big data, and quantum computing, high gain beam steering antennas suitable for LEO platform, Spaceborne unfurlable Antenna, Attitude Determination and Control System for Nano Satellite, Space based High Power Laser, Geolocation Techniques for Electronics Intelligence (ELINT), Space Asset Jamming, high-speed Free Space Laser optical communication links, Data Processing Algorithms for Hyper Spectral Payload, IoT Devices for Micro Satellite, AI/ML based Multi Sensor Data Fusion Techniques for Space based surveillance, Rendezvous and Proximity Operations technology, Infra-Red (IR) Payload for Hypersonic Missile detection, Spaceborne Environmental Sensors for Space Weather Information, and Spaceborne Sensor for Underwater Detection.

Space-tech Startups
Startups are the inevitable anchor of the feeble economy. They are the storehouse of innovation, state-of-art, and out-of-the-box ideas which are making each day brighter. Like every sphere of the industry, startups have made their permanent footprints on space tech industry and bolstering up the gem of India, ISRO’s pride to a greater height than ever.

The Indian government’s decision to privatize the space technology industry and bring in new players has led to a significant expansion in the sector. Space-tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs are using this golden opportunity and opening up new products and tools which are boosting India’s space industry.

Few of the renowned space-tech startup companies are listed below

Pixxel:
It is a Bengaluru-based firm which is involved in satellite networks. The company was founded by Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal in 2019. Their specialized area is building a constellation of 24-30 small Earth-imaging satellites which will provide them with the capability to monitor the earth 24*7 in real-time. They are planning to launch six satellites within next year. Awais and Kshitij built an AI model that could use satellite data to predict crop yields, detect illegal mining and track natural disasters.

Pixxel’s satellite is heavy on its competitor in many ways like it takes in and analyze a wide spectrum of light instead of just assigning basic information like primary color. In this nobel and intellectual endeavor they received significant funding from investors, including TechStars and IvyCap Ventures.

All space projects push the frontiers of technology and are drivers of innovation-Martin Rees

Skyroot Aerospace:
This is located in city of Nizam’s, Hyderabad and a private aerospace manufacturer and provider of commercial launch services. Skyroot is the first Indian startup to launch a private rocket from India. Former engineers and scientists at ISRO Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka founded this company in 2018 to produce satellite platforms, propulsion systems, and rockets for various uses.

Skyroot Aerospace was announced as the winner of National Startup Awards 2020 by Union Minister of Trade and Industry, Piyush Goyal. The startup successfully raised $50.5 million as part of its Series B funding round. They are planning to create and launch a number of compact launch vehicles that are especially suited for the market for small satellites. They have already signed a MoU with commercial satellite maker Dhruva Space on November, 2020.

Dhruva Space:
It is based in Hyderabad and one of the only three private firms in India to have launched at least a single satellite to space. Sanjay Srikanth Nekkanti founded this company in 2012. It provides a full proof space solutions for the people and businesses who want to launch their own tiny satellites into orbit. They make small satellite for commercial, governmental, and academic markets.

They offer customized and tailor-made design of satellite for launching provider sourcing, and ground station maintenance. Dhruva Space was awarded the ‘Best Startup-Silver’ award for the Telangana State Industrial Awards by Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, and Information Technology Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao.

Agnikul Cosmos:

This is a Chennai based aerospace farm. It is one of the wings of National Center for Combustion R&D (NCRD) at IIT Madras. Agni Kul Cosmos was started by Srinath Ravichandran and Moin Khan at IIT Madras with an initial funding of 3 crores in 2020. They launched their first rocket in 2021. They are planning to launch India’s first private space-flight. They are planning to develop own small-lift launch vehicles, including the Agnibaan which can carry 100kg payload into an orbit across 700km.

They have inked agreement with ISRO’s Department of Space in September 2021, to learn all the technicalities and know-how for the development of its two-stage small-satellite launch vehicle, the Agnibaan. It received its first Flight Termination System (FTS) from ISRO last year which will accompany Agnibaan, when it will be thrown to the space from the Satish Dhawan Space Research Center.

Bellatrix Aerospace:
It is a Bengaluru based Space tech farm, a private Indian aerospace manufacturer and small satellite company started in 2015. This farm is the brainchild of Rohan Ganapathy, Nuthan Prasanna, and Yashas Karanam. They announced to launch its rocket, named Chetak, which is powered by Bellatrix’s Aeon engines and uses liquid methane as fuel.

They first came up with an idea of using water as the propellant for an electric propulsion system. They are planning to execute the first phase of its ‘space taxis’, which are space shuttles that can transfer satellites from one orbit to another. On February 8, 2021 Bellatrix inked a deal of partnership with Skyroot Aerospace.

Way Ahead
Partner at venture capital fund Kalaari Capital, Ravinder Pal Singh said that, “I am convinced that we will have at least three to four unicorns emerging in India’s space-tech industry in another five years.”As the decade will continue, a lot of innovative technologies will come and go but the constant urge to touch the sky should not be affected. Before 2030, India’s space-tech ecosystem will produce multiple unicorns in multiple segments.

This bright sector has a lot of potential and in the past 10 years, nearly $27 billion in investments were made globally in certain segments of the space sector, which is now worth close to $4 trillion. The Indian space sector has secured $62 million in funding in the first half of 2023. The profit was increased by 60 percent from the last FY.

A report by global consultancy Arthur D. Little, the current size of the Indian space market has risen to $8 billion, exhibiting a CAGR of 4 percent. Venture capitalists are showing greater interest after observing the sector’s potential for disruption, innovation and commercialization.

According to a Pitchbook report, VC funding for global space-tech companies has reached $6.2 billion across 112 deals till 2022. If the innovation and advancement of Space science and technology continues at this pace, in future, the whole industry will shift to robotics and AI to assist human teams of astronauts, who will assist the astronaut and scientists with data analysis.