Goenka said achieving that scale will require multiple private companies to enter the launch business, with ISRO continuing to provide technical support and develop new technologies. The focus, he said, is on building a broader ecosystem rather than putting the responsibility solely on either ISRO or private industry.
The expansion will also need stronger satellite manufacturing, space infrastructure, research and development, government demand and wider use of space technology. Goenka said these elements will have to come together for India to become more competitive globally and reach the $44 billion target.
Edited excerpts:
Q: I wanted to understand from you that, while we have seen significant developments in the startup ecosystem, particularly in the space startup ecosystem, these are still relatively young companies. It is still early days for them. They have seen one launch, but questions are being raised about repeatability, consistency and performance. You alluded to this in your remarks as well. Do you believe that, for this repositioning of ISRO and this transition to take place, more time needs to be given?
Goenka: Yes, of course, more time has to be given, and that is precisely why we are going to take it step by step. There is no urgency to do something like this overnight. It will be a gradual process.
Let me come back to the point you raised. One launch does not establish launch capability. One launch is just one launch, and everyone understands that. Skyroot knows very well that it needs two, three or four successful launches before the market has full confidence in its ability to launch vehicles reliably, and the company is working towards that.
In fact, for the launch of Skyroot’s first vehicle, Vikram-S, the reviews carried out by the ISRO and IN-SPACe teams were as rigorous as those conducted for any ISRO launch. I think we had around 25 separate reviews, and each review identified issues that needed to be addressed. The process was repeated again and again, which is why the launch succeeded on its first attempt.
At present, Skyroot still depends on ISRO’s expertise to ensure that everything is done correctly. Over time, ISRO’s involvement will reduce as the company develops its own in-house capability to ensure its rockets are ready for launch.
The same will apply to SSLV. It is a rocket designed by ISRO and has already been tested through two or three ISRO launches before being handed over to HAL. At the moment, ISRO teams are working closely with HAL to ensure it fully understands the nuances involved in achieving successful launches.
HAL has been working with ISRO for many years, supplying subsystems for launch vehicles, and ISRO will continue supporting the company for as long as necessary. We have currently estimated that around two years will be required. Beyond that, if needed, ISRO will continue to work alongside HAL. Only when we are fully convinced that HAL has the capability to conduct SSLV launches independently will ISRO step back. Even then, ISRO will remain available whenever required.
We will follow the same approach with PSLV. The process has already begun, with five rockets being manufactured by a consortium of private companies. When the rocket is eventually transferred, ISRO will provide full handholding support for approximately two-and-a-half to three years. After that, ISRO will continue to be available as required to help ensure the success of PSLV launches.
As we work towards building a $44 billion space economy, launches will play a critical role. We would like to see 50 launches taking place annually from India, effectively one launch every week. Just think about what that means. We currently conduct only five or six launches a year, so growing to 50 launches annually represents a significant leap.
Achieving that will require multiple companies participating in launch activities, with ISRO available to provide support whenever necessary. ISRO will also continue to focus on technology development and on building next-generation launch vehicles such as the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). We are creating an entire ecosystem. This is not about industry versus ISRO. It is about India and how India becomes globally competitive in space assets, space infrastructure, satellite manufacturing, launch capabilities, data collection and downstream applications.
That is how we will reach the $44 billion target. It cannot be achieved through aspiration alone.
Nor can it be achieved without the participation of every stakeholder. ISRO, its highly capable vendor ecosystem, startups, large industrial companies, research and development laboratories, government departments, policy-makers and demand generators all have a role to play in achieving that ambition.
Just imagine the employment opportunities that such an ecosystem could create. Imagine the economic benefits and the wider impact on society. As space technology becomes part of everyday life, not only for government departments but also for businesses and citizens, its true value will become apparent. Whether it is agriculture, fisheries, marine operations, disaster management, weather forecasting or countless other applications, space technology will increasingly become a part of daily life.
Also Read | ISRO’s role is not shrinking, private sector will take up routine manufacturing: Pawan Goenka
Q: Dr Goenka, you laid out for us clearly the aspirations that we have, not just in terms of that $44 billion number, but also the granular target of 50 launches a year, or roughly one launch a week, which is what we are aspiring to. But, again, there is concern being raised about the possible hollowing out of ISRO. Now, ISRO’s own clarification says that it has already transferred multiple technologies to industry, something that you yourself just gave us examples of. Transferring a mature technology does not mean ISRO is withdrawing from that domain. What will drive technology transfer in the future, Dr Goenka, from the perspective of national priorities, national ambition, what the private sector can do, and what ISRO must continue to retain?
Goenka: Now, when you’re doing technology transfer, the only technology that has been transferred so far where it will be made completely by the industry, HAL in this case, which is a PSU, is SSLV.
Everything else that is being transferred from ISRO to the private sector or a PSU involves only granting a licence to use that technology. ISRO is not withdrawing at all. ISRO will continue to use that technology. ISRO will continue to make those parts if it has to do so in-house. ISRO will continue to develop the technology and add to it. Nothing changes whatsoever.
The only thing that we are doing is, and please appreciate this, up until now this technology was used only by ISRO and only for ISRO products. We are saying that we have a treasure trove in India of technology developed by ISRO over decades. Why keep it closed? It is not taking anything away from ISRO. ISRO continues to use it. ISRO continues to develop it. ISRO continues to build it.
We are simply telling the private sector: “You pay for this technology and then use it to develop products that you can sell globally.” That is the underlying point.
We want ISRO to continue using the technology itself, without requiring anybody else’s help if it does not want it, while also giving others the opportunity to take it global, develop it, and supply to ISRO if ISRO wants it. But that is not the main purpose. The main purpose is not to supply ISRO. The main purpose is to supply other private industries in India and customers globally.
Again, this is all done with the approval of the Space Commission, with very clearly laid-out dos and don’ts on what can be transferred, what cannot be transferred, who it can be transferred to, and what can be charged for it. None of this is ad hoc. Everything is set out in a clearly defined technology transfer framework.
So, it does not take anything away from ISRO whatsoever. All we are saying is that we have a treasure available, so let us leverage it and allow private sector companies to start using it globally.
And not only does ISRO receive the initial licensing fee, it also receives royalties. Whenever products based on these technologies are sold, ISRO receives a royalty for the technology it developed. ISRO is not giving up ownership of the technology; it is only allowing somebody else to use it.
Q: So technology transfer is essentially a licensing arrangement with a royalty clause built into it. Dr Goenka, I want to address two specific concerns, and these relate to people. I go back to the letter written by the employees’ association. They write, and I quote, “Progressive withdrawal of ISRO from launch vehicle and satellite realisation will hamper experimentation and research, shrink in-house work, reduce sanctioned strength, and limit promotion and skill-development avenues across technical, scientific, administrative, stores, purchase, quality, safety and industrial cadres.”
The broader concern being raised by current ISRO employees is: what happens to us? Do we become redundant? Will there be job cuts? And will there also be an impact on hiring? Let us address that issue first.
Goenka: Well, there are several things embedded in this. The ISRO Chairman has already addressed this question in the media and said that he will respond appropriately to employees. But let me talk about it as something of an outsider because these are ISRO employees writing to the ISRO Chairman. In that sense, I am an outsider. Let me still try to address it.
ISRO activities are not, and I repeat, are not diminishing. If you look at what is currently on the table, approved programmes, not ideas floating around but approved programmes, Chandrayaan-4, Bharat Space Station, India on the Moon, the Venus mission, the Mars mission, NavIC fortification, the Space-Based Surveillance (SBS) satellite programme.
If you add all that up, ISRO has never had so much on its plate. I think its plate is full, and so is the workload of ISRO employees. Talk to the managers about their workloads today. Talk to ISRO directors and centre directors, and they will tell you that their plates are absolutely full. The SBS programme alone requires ISRO to build 21 satellites over a period of three to four years. That is more than it has ever done, in my opinion, as far as I know.
The Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) programme will require significant resources from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). And would we not rather see the RLV happen faster so that India becomes more globally competitive, rather than have VSSC focused on day-to-day manufacturing of proven launch vehicles?
When we come to employees, everything I have just spoken about, and if you were to ask the ISRO Chairman, although I am not competent enough to answer on his behalf, he would tell you that every single individual currently on ISRO’s payroll will be needed.
So I do not see where this concern is coming from. I think there is an assumption that perhaps there is a broader plan somewhere. I do not know where that is coming from. But what I am telling you is entirely consistent with what the ISRO Chairman has said and with what I have heard during meetings that I attend.
There is no fear whatsoever, as far as I can see, that ISRO employment will decline over time.
Yes, it is possible that some people doing repetitive routine work today may not be doing the same routine work tomorrow. But is that not what one would want? Is that not what ISRO employees would want? To work on something new and add to the knowledge base rather than repeat the same activity over and over again?
That is what ISRO is meant for, and that is what ISRO will do. In some sense, in my humble opinion, by taking away day-to-day routine work from ISRO and putting more high-technology, high-impact work on its plate, we are increasing, not diminishing, the value that ISRO creates, which can then be leveraged by the broader ecosystem.
When people talk about employees, much is also made of the so-called exodus of employees. I have seen a figure of 125 people being cited in the media as having left. But 125 out of 12,500 is just 1%. Please name one organisation anywhere in the world.
Q: But let me end by asking you, privatisation or opening up of the space sector and India is essentially a five-year story. How much did you model what needs to be done to encourage the private sector, to also ensure deeper, greater collaboration to achieve the national objectives? We have had programmes at NASA, for instance, the Commercial Orbital Transport Services programme going back to 2006, the programme that kind of helped launch companies like SpaceX, etc., in many ways. How much of what is being prioritised today, what is being modelled and shaped by IN-SPACe, by the Department of Space, has learnings from what we’ve seen happen in private sector, public sector participations that we’ve seen play out globally?
Goenka: What I can say is the following: that Indian government today is looking at space technology as something that needs to be used lot more than what we have been using in the past. Whether you look at strategic departments, whether you look at agriculture, disaster management, urban planning, marine, maritime, any of these things, there is lot more requirement of how to we use space technology, and a lot of work is going on right now, which will be driving the use of space technology in the various government departments, both in central government as well as state government.
Now, if you take that to next step, there will be projects coming out that will be given to private sector, shared with ISRO, which will create this demand in the private sector to provide the relevant technology and the relevant space objects to the government. I wouldn’t say that we are telling private sector what to do. We should not. It’s for the private sector to decide where the opportunities are, where their capabilities are, and work accordingly. But we are creating tremendous amount of opportunity for the private sector, so they can tap into it.
I mentioned SBS earlier, where some 21 satellites are being built by ISRO, 31 are being built by private sector. This is first time ever private sector got an order for building 31 satellites. First time ever. Now, these are smaller satellites that private sector is doing. The larger satellites are being done by ISRO and this is how we are nurturing the private sector to come forward. And because with these 31 satellites, many private sector companies were able to define and sort of justify putting in infrastructure. And this is another place, another thing that private sector is investing a lot of money. They are not simply saying that, let me get order and then I will see what happens. If you go around, and again, you have talked to many of these companies, you look at how much investment they have made in setting up infrastructure, whether it is Pixxel, Digantara, Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs), Dhruva Space, – they have really set up a very, very nice infrastructure. So, I think there is a there is a sense of what we need. There is a sense in the private sector and we have constant collaboration dialogue.
IN-SPACe meets with private sector very often, formally and informally, to communicate to them that this is where the opportunities are. When we see something that private sector is doing which we have not thought about, we then try and come in to see how we facilitate it and how do we encourage it. Like, for example, there’s a company trying to do pharmaceutical research in space, I would have never thought about it. But this company came to us and said – this is what we want to do. And I was so excited to see something like that happening in India that I really want to see how we can be helping that company to be able to move forward.
The ₹1000 crore VC fund that we did was done with the objective that how does the government put in some money on the table so that private sector is able to not have to go to investors very early, so that we can we can provide that money. We have seed fund scheme, we have technology adoption fund, we have R&D fund, we have all kinds of things that we’re doing to kind of direct, but not be very directive, if what I mean. So we are sort of trying to sort of direct it in a way, but let them decide what interests them most and where they want to be.
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