Indian Space Program and its Drivers: Possible Implications for the Global Space Market Notes de l'Ifri, January 2022
India has one of the oldest space programs in the world with space playing a critical role in India’s national development and external power projection capability.
India has launched missions to the Moon and Mars and plans to send an Indian citizen to Low Earth Orbit by 2023. The Indian space program is well known for its ability to launch cheaply to space. It is in this context that this paper explains the drivers for India’s space program, that includes nationalism, entrepreneurship, and national security. The paper describes India’s civilian and military space capacities and highlights the emerging Indian commercial space sector and its growing role in the Indian space economy.
The paper ends by specifying the impact of the Indian space sector on the global space market and by offering some recommendations for better coordination of Indian space policy.
Dr. Namrata Goswami is an independent scholar on space policy and Great Power Politics.