The Indian government has announced the incorporation of a new state-owned company, New Space India Limited (NSIL), to commercially exploit the R&D work of India’s space agency ISRO.
The new company will be owned by the Government of India Undertaking/Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE), under the administrative control of the Department of Space (DOS).
NSIL’s activities will include:
- transfer of small satellite technologies to industry
- manufacture of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) in collaboration with the private sector
- production of the PSLV through private industry
- production and marketing of space-based services, including launch and application
- technology transfer
- marketing of spinoff technologies within India and globally
This initiative is aimed at growing India’s space industry and bringing it to the global stage, and enable scaling up of manufacturing and production for ISRO. Through marketing space-related products, such as spin-offs or space applications, India also hopes to generate foreign exchange revenue from the space sector.
Chandrayaan-3
In a separate announcement, the Indian government has confirmed that “work on future lunar missions is progressing”, after weeks of speculation that there will be a third Indian lunar mission, known unofficially as Chandrayaan-3.
According to Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh , “ISRO has drawn out a roadmap of lunar exploration missions to master the technologies required. This roadmap has been presented to the space commission. Based on the final analysis and recommendations of the expert committee, work on future lunar missions is progressing.”
In addressing India’s past lunar missions, including the recent Chandrayaan-2 – which saw the loss of the Vikram lander – Dr. Singh said:
“The expert committee has analyzed the flight data and extensive simulations were carried out to re-construct the flight behavior. The recommendations of the expert committee will be implemented in future lunar missions.”
