A first, private payloads set for space launch

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 27

The ball has been set rolling for space activities by private firms with the Indian Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) on Monday announcing that it had authorised two start-ups to launch their payloads aboard the ISRO’s workhorse PSLV on June 30.

The authorisations were the first to private entities by IN-SPACe, an autonomous single-window nodal agency under the Department of Space.

The authorisation was granted to Dhruva Space Private Ltd of Hyderabad and Digantara Research and Technologies Private Ltd of Bengaluru on the sidelines of the national conference on “Development of Space Start-ups Ecosystem in India (DeSSEI)” organised in Bengaluru on June 24.

Dhruva’s Space Satellite Orbital Deployer (DSOD 1U), a technology demonstration payload, and Digantara’s ROBust Integrating Proton Fluence Meter (ROBI), a proton dosimeter payload, would fly onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C53 (PSLV-C53) mission scheduled for take-off.

“It’s an important milestone in India and will go a long way in boosting space technology. Digantara will launch a weather satellite, which will use the company’s patented technology. Dhruva will test its satellite deployer technology, which can be used in future for international customers,” said IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Kumar Goenka.

Dhruva Space CEO Sanjay Nekkanti and Digantara CEO and co-founder Anirudha N Sharma were all praise for the ISRO initiative.

2 start-ups get nod

• 1 DSOD-1U: Dhruva’s Space Satellite Orbital Deployer is a technology demonstration payload developed by Hyderabad firm
• 2 ROBI: ROBust Integrating Proton Fluence Meter, a proton dosimeter payload, is a weather satellite and the brainchild of a Bengaluru firm

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