Money In Space

At 6.22 am on a cloudy Wednesday morning, a small island on the eastern coast of India in the state of Andhra Pradesh was buzzing with fervor, excitement and satisfaction. Most people, many Indian have not even heard of this place called Sriharikota but it is without doubt the heart of India’s space program. On Wednesday India’s first unmanned moon mission blasted off from the launch pad at Sriharikota thereby signaling to the world that India is only among six countries capable of launching a moon mission and capable of developing its space program with such formidable force. But, at the end of the day scientific and political victories aside, this is a big deal from the commercial side as well.

For decades India didn’t even have a space program but from the day it got its own space agency (ISRO) it’s been on a warpath to conquer space. Decades of technological isolation have led to the scientists at ISRO to innovate continuously and invent scientifically viable apparatus for space exploration and it has been this feature of the scientists at ISRO that has finally put India into a very elite space club.

It highlights the indigenous nature of Indian invention. This moon mission has been developed from scratch with Indian components, developed by Indian brains using Indian technologies and finally controlled by Indians. It is a reminder to the rest of the world that India is fully capable of developing its own means even if others deny it to us.

The satellite named Chandrayaan -1 which should be placed around the moon in a few weeks time is more of an icing on a cake which has been very difficult to bake. The more important victory for India has been the success of its own satellite launch vehicle called the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle).It has not only freed India from dependence on the launching services of other countries but has importantly created tremendous economic opportunities.

Many countries are capable of developing their own satellites but depend on other countries to launch it for them. The PSLV is without doubt India’s space work horse but it has also proved to be super successful since its inception. It has been putting Indian satellites in space for long and has gradually started putting foreign satellites in space as well which is where the commercial feature of the space program comes into effect.

Countries throughout the world require satellites for television, radio and overall communication needs including the internet and telephone. Some require satellites especially for spying and espionage purposes. Just this year the PSLV launched an Israeli satellite into space and in future it should launch more because the current world satellite launch market is worth almost 3 Billion dollars and it will without doubt be a lot more in the next decade alone.

The future will see India strategically develop it’s moon exploration program with an intent to put an Indian there by 2020.The next year will see the launch of the Chandrayaan-2 which is a rover that will collect data from the moon’s surface.