Orbital Shift: India’s space sector undergoing biggest transformation; pvt firms handle rockets, ISRO focus on more ambitious missions

Early this month, nine employee bodies of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) wrote a letter to chairman V Narayanan, who is also secretary of the Department of Space, on the future of the agency. The gist of their concern: Will the entry of the private sector diminish one of India’s crown jewels? Will ISRO, they asked, be reduced to a “residual R&D boutique while the realisation of the nation’s launch vehicles and the operation of its launch infrastructure pass out of public hands?”