India is witnessing an impressive expansion of its space sector, said NewSpace India Limited chairman Dr Radhakrishnan Durairaj.

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) was established by the Indian government as the commercial arm of the public space agency, with the aim of working with private companies to enhance the country’s space industry.

Speaking during the Bahrain International Air Show in November, he said the company currently owned 11 in-orbit communication satellites and had grown to an impressive size in terms of capital.

Substantial revenue

“We were established in 2019 to commercialise the space products and services in India and also to look after the operational missions of the Indian Space Research Organisation, in a much, much more expansive way that we need to do,” he said.

“Since our company got established, we have made quite a substantial revenue in our businesses.

“I’m proud to say that our company is a $1 billion company in terms of the authorised capital that we are processing.”

End-to-end space-related activities

He added: “With respect to this space activities at NewSpace India Limited, we are doing end-to-end space-related activities, be it for building large vehicles through industries, providing launch services to international customers, building satellites, launching the satellites, doing the mission support services and technology transfer.

“In fact, today we own 11 communication satellites in orbit … So we are one of the first satellite operators in India, providing all the communication services.”
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