Big bang reform: New space policy allows private players in commercial activities

India has announced a new space policy that will permit private participation in a wide range of commercial space activities including commercial recovery of an asteroid resource or a space resource. Private players engaged in such a process shall be entitled to possess, own, transport, use, and sell any such asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law, including the international obligations of India.

The ‘Indian Space Policy 2023’, released by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday states that non governmental entities (NGEs) shall be allowed to undertake end-to-end activities in space sector through establishment and operation of space objects, ground-based assets and related services, such as communication, remote sensing, navigation, etc. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (In-SPACe), under the administrative control of the Department of SpaceI will prescribe necessary guidelines and regulations needed to operationalise private entry into the commercial space sector.

The policy states that In-SPACe will act as the single window agency for the authorisation of space activities by government entities as well as NGEs, subject to relevant government directives, keeping in mind safety, national security, international obligations and/or foreign policy considerations.

In-SPACe authorisation will be required for the establishment and/or operations of space object(s), the launch and operation of launch vehicles including sub-orbital launches, the establishment and operation of launch pads which could be self-owned, leased or be a mobile platform, the planned re-entry of space objects with or without recovery, the establishment and operation of Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TT&C) Earth Stations, the establishment and operation of Satellite Control Centres (SCCs) and/or satellite data reception station(s), dissemination of high resolution space-based earth observation data and in-orbit sale/ purchase/ transfer of Space Objects.

In-SPACe will also be responsible for promoting industry clusters / zones/ manufacturing hubs/ incubation Centres/ accelerators / technical centres etc., for the space sector and work with industry – both national and overseas – to promote identified space activities and establish India as a preferred service provider for global requirements of products/services in the space sector.

The agency will also work with academia to widen the space ecosystem and enable industry-academia linkages. It will define frameworks for developing space industry standards, based on global benchmarks.

The space policy authorises In-SPACe to establish specialised technical facilities by NGEs within the premises of the Department of Space. And to permit easy access for Government entities and NGEs to space based remote sensing data collected through public expenditure. Sharing of best-practices with private entities for enabling technology ecosystem, facilitation and incentivizing of private players to acquire new orbital resources through Indian International Telecommunication Union (ITU) filings to operate their space objects will be its responsibility.

ISRO shared the new policy through its twitter handle on April 20.