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Space policy, private sector and governance
How space is governed and opened to private firms: space policy and its bodies, startups and the space economy, international cooperation and treaties, and debris and traffic in orbit. Prelims has asked about the part private entities play in India's space programme.
Showing 5 of 11 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 September 2026.Show all
The Artemis Accords
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The Artemis Accords are the terms on which the American lunar programme admits a partner, and India accepted them in 2023. They are principles rather than a treaty, which is both why the list of signatories grew so quickly and why the arrangement is contested.
- India was the twenty-seventh of about 70 signatories, a group that includes neither Russia nor China.
- Critics say the Accords sidestep the 1979 Moon Agreement.
European Space Agency
- Ground stations to track Gaganyaan, India's crewed spaceflight missions
CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales), France's space agency
- Built Megha-Tropiques and SARAL with ISRO
- TRISHNA, a joint thermal infrared mission tracking land surface temperature and evapotranspiration
- TRISHNA due on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) next year
What changed
10 Sep 2026
- More than 430 payloads from 34 countries have flown on Indian rockets.
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) aims at an indigenous space station, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, by 2035 and an Indian astronaut on the Moon by 2040.
PIB, 10 Sep 2026: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addresses the International Space Summit in Paris, France (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 10 Sep 2026: ESA to explore cooperation with ISRO in human space flight, lunar and Venus missions (opens in a new tab)
12 Aug 2026
The Hindu, 12 Aug 2026: NASA invites ISRO to join Moon Base programme (opens in a new tab)
12 Aug 2026
- NASA invited ISRO to join Moon Base at the ninth India and United States Civil Space Joint Working Group meeting.
- Moon Base is a planned crewed outpost near the lunar south pole, built in stages for research and lunar resources.
- Joining would build ISRO's experience for human spaceflight.
- ISRO would also risk being locked into NASA's technology ecosystem, and technology denial.
The Hindu, 12 Aug 2026: NASA invites ISRO to join Moon Base programme (opens in a new tab)
21 Jul 2026Updatealso in news
- Bengaluru hosts the India and United States Civil Space Joint Working Group in August. The group was set up in 2005.
The Hindu, 21 Jul 2026: Bengaluru to host India-U.S. space group meet in August (opens in a new tab)
Background reading: The Indian Express, 18 Aug 2026: What India stands to gain by joining NASA's Moon Base programme (opens in a new tab)
Policy and private sector
Indian Space Policy 2023
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The policy settled the division of labour in 2023, so the argument since has been about pace rather than direction. It also set the terms of the opening: what data is free, how much foreign money may come in, and what ISRO stops making.
- The frontier missions ISRO keeps for itself include Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan-4, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035 and a crewed Moon landing by 2040.
- Earth observation data coarser than 5 m is made available free, while finer data is not.
- Foreign direct investment is allowed to 74 per cent by the automatic route for satellites, 49 per cent for launch vehicles and spaceports, and 100 per cent for components.
- About 450 space startups are registered, against a handful in 2020.
- India's space economy is about $8.4 billion, under 2 per cent of the world's, against a target of $44 billion by 2033.
ISRO
- Research and new technologies
- Share technology with industry
- Human spaceflight roadmap
- Move out of manufacturing operational systems
IN-SPACe
- Authorise launches, satellites, ground stations
- Promote and hand hold industry
- Open access to government facilities
NSIL
- Commercialise publicly developed technology
- Commercial launches for Indian and foreign clients
Non-governmental entities
- End to end space activities
- Build and operate satellites and ground assets
What changed
14 Sep 2026
6 Sep 2026
- ISRO's employee associations asked whether the agency would stop building launch vehicles and routine satellites; the answer given was that the shift is ecosystem expansion and not privatisation.
- The staff cite vacant posts, scientists leaving and revenue given up on commercial launches.
- Almost 80 per cent of ISRO's budget already goes to industry.
16 Aug 2026
- A kilogram to low earth orbit cost $13,302 on Indian rockets in 2025, the highest among major nations.
- The global average was $3,868 and the United States $3,225.
- The cause is rarity rather than inefficiency: India flew five launches that year, mostly on small rockets.
16 Jul 2026Update
- After about 100 personnel quit across centres, against a sanctioned strength of 18,142 with 2,613 posts vacant, the Department of Space directed that resignations and voluntary retirement of scientific staff linked to Gaganyaan and other critical projects not be accepted as routine until those projects are complete.
Background reading: The Indian Express, 7 Sep 2026: Private sector push is 'ecosystem expansion, not privatisation': ISRO allays staff concerns (opens in a new tab)
IN-SPACe
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Every private space activity in India ends at the same desk, and IN-SPACe both authorises it and promotes it. The second job is the one that matters to a startup, because it opens government test and launch facilities to firms that could never build their own.
- It has issued 113 authorisations to 52 non-governmental entities.
- It has invited private operators to run the small satellite launch complex at Kulasekarapattinam, Tamil Nadu.
- A private operator at a launch complex raises questions of safety, liability and accountability to Parliament.
What changed
6 Sep 2026
29 Aug 2026Updatealso in newsnewly added
- Under the invitation to run the Kulasekarapattinam launch complex, the private operator would handle launch campaigns and safety, with ISRO guiding for one year or three campaigns, whichever comes first.
5 Aug 2026
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2026: private entities in the space programme, including IN-SPACe
NewSpace India Limited
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Where IN-SPACe gives permission, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) sells. It exists so that a customer, Indian or foreign, buys a launch or a satellite from a company rather than from a research agency.
- It takes technology developed with public money to market, and books commercial launches for Indian and foreign clients.
What changed
Technology transfer to industry
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Asking ISRO to move out of manufacturing operational systems means handing a mature design, and the knowledge of how to build it, to a company that has never built one. How far that has gone differs sharply from one launch vehicle to the next.
SSLV
- Designed with industry in mind, assembled in about 3 days
- Transferred to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in 2025 for ₹511 crore
PSLV
- Assembled in about 70 days
- A HAL and Larsen & Toubro consortium is building five
- Fresh call for its technology in 2026
LVM3
- A 2024 attempt to commercialise was never awarded
- New call in 2026
What changed
Also filed elsewhere
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- Vikram-1 · on Launch vehicles, satellites and applications
Vikram-1 is a four stage launch vehicle about 22 metres tall, built by Skyroot Aerospace of Hyderabad, with three solid stages and a restartable liquid upper stage called the Orbital Adjustment Module.