Space market size $350 billion; India's share - 3%; Need privateers: ISRO chief K Sivan

As the Central government opened the space industry to the private sector, ISRO chief K Sivan said on Saturday that many start-up companies have expressed interest in the space sector while big corporates are yet to come forth.

Following NASA’s footsteps, the centre has now opened private players to the space industry, allowing them to participate in the building of rockets, providing launch services amongst others.

Speaking on the development, K Sivan said the market size of the global space sector is about $350 billion and India shares less than three per cent of the market. If the ISRO continues to remain the sole player in the space sector, the market share will not improve, he added.

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Providing a breakdown of the $350 billion global space market, the ISRO chief said, the share of rocket launch service is two per cent, manufacturing of satellites is close to five per cent, the share of space application services is 45 per cent and ground equipment is 48 per cent.

K Sivan said the government has also approved the creation of a new body –Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre, or IN-SPACe — that would work as a link between the ISRO and private company who wants to participate in space-related activities or use India’s space resources.

He reiterated that ISRO's work will not be handled by the private sector and the space research centre will carry on with its work.

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'Acquiring land for the second rocket launch centre'

K Sivan also said the process of acquiring land for building a second rocket launch centre is underway in Tamil Nadu’s Kulasekarapattinam and the construction would only begin after the land is handed over for development. Nearly 2,300 acres of land is required for the project, a state government official said.

Major successful nations in space sector have multiple rocket launch sites. Presently, India has one rocket port Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota in with two launch pads.

Sivan further said, there will be some delay in India's human space mission Gaganyaan due to Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown.

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(With Agency inputs)