India space strategy: harness data, tiny satellites to capture market beyond SpaceX

India aims to carve a niche in commercial space by launching small satellites and providing cost-effective services.

India has a plan to carve out a beachhead in the battle for commercial space, officials say: crunching space data, building small satellites and launching them cheaply into orbit rather than challenging heavyweights such as SpaceX head-on.

In particular, it is taking aim at providing cost-effective services and hardware to sectors such as communications, agriculture and commodities, where high-quality data is a precious resource.

“The world has gone from satellites the size of a Boeing plane to the size of a laptop,” said AK Bhatt, director general of the Indian Space Association, an industry body.

“This is a sector that India can win, instead of challenging heavy launches where Elon Musk has dominance. The country already has an historical advantage in data mining and interpretation.”

Since February, India has opened its space sector to private players and created a Rs 10 billion venture fund to support space startups. It has also unveiled plans for crewed space exploration and a mission to Venus, but the focus is on developing commercial ventures.

In many ways it will be an uphill fight. Other countries such as Japan and China have advanced space industries, and designs on cheap launches. Spaceflight itself is difficult; the startup landscape globally is littered with failed boosters and satellite designs.

For India, “the tech is there and the ability is there... but space is tricky and very competitive, and while private companies have shown that they can create a niche for themselves, we need more proof of concept,” said Namrata Goswami, a space policy expert at Arizona State University.