India To Allow Private Firms To Build And Operate Launch Sites

(This was originally posted in Times Of India by Chethan Kumar)

As part of the ongoing space reforms, India will allow domestic private companies to establish and operate their own launch sites and pads, besides launching their own vehicles and missions involving re-entry of objects, reports Chethan Kumar.

This is part of the new draft National Space Transportation Policy released on Friday by the Department of Space (DoS) and Isro, which aims to provide opportunities for Indian entities to capture a share of the global launch services market while government agencies accelerate R&D to build space transportation capabilities for future space endeavors along with commercial exploitation.

“Apart from building and launching launch vehicles, private players can have their own launch sites where they build launch pads… or, they can build launch pads on our launch sites so that they have more options. They can also lease out launch pads,” said K Sivan, secretary of the DoS. Sivan added that private firms can tie up with Isro and be part of futuristic programs in space transportation.