India is one of the world’s top spacefaring nations. It is the first Asian country to reach Mars orbit, and the fourth on the planet to take a spacecraft to the moon, landing closer to the south pole, known for its cratered terrain, than anyone else has.
But its private sector has played a limited role in space exploration, acting mostly as suppliers and vendors for its national space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization . That’s changing quickly, owing to a raft of government reforms aiming to boost private participation in the space sector. In the United States, the proliferation of private companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX have boosted Washington’s space ambitions by driving down costs.
“It’s really very, very competitive what SpaceX is now offering,” says Susmita Mohanty, director general of Indian think-tank Spaceport Sarabhai. Skyroot wants to offer dedicated launches for $20,000 per kilogram, which is much more expensive than SpaceX’s less bespoke service. . Chandana compares SpaceX’s ridesharing missions as “a train to go to space” and Skyroot’s operations as “cabs to get into space, where we take satellites to their customized locations.
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Watch India's prototype space plane ace a landing test (video)Andrew is a freelance space journalist with a focus on reporting on China's rapidly growing space sector. He began writing for Space.com in 2019 and writes for SpaceNews, IEEE Spectrum, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist and others.
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