Space startups revolutionize India’s rocket science

Space startups revolutionize India’s rocket science
This handout photo taken and released by Indian Space Research Organization on Nov. 18, 2022 shows the first privately developed Indian rocket Vikram-S being launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. (AFP)
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Updated 28 January 2023

Space startups revolutionize India’s rocket science

Space startups revolutionize India’s rocket science
  • India’s space industry opened the door for private players with a regulatory overhaul in 2020
  • First Indian rocket built by a private company reached outer space in November 2022

NEW DELHI: When the Vikram-S rocket was launched in November, it set a new milestone in India’s space industry — a success for the private players who recently entered a domain that for decades belonged only to the state.

The privately built rocket took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and reached an apogee of 89.5 km, making its owners, Skyroot Aerospace, the first private Indian company to reach outer space.  

“Beyond the symbolic value of being the first, we are happy to be among the early movers in the private space start-up ecosystem which has started to demonstrate its potential,” Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder of the Hyderabad-based startup, told Arab News.

India opened the door to private companies in the space industry in 2020, with a regulatory overhaul and the formation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center — a single-window autonomous agency under the government’s Department of Space. Before that, the state-owned Indian Space Research Organization was the sole arbiter of the country’s space programs. 

“Our successful launch has confirmed the domain expertise and leadership capabilities of the Indian space sector,” Chandana said. “We now focus on developing our flagship Vikram I orbital vehicle that we (will) launch in 2023.”

Skyroot Aerospace was founded by Chandana and his partner Bharath Daka in 2018. Both of them spent years working at ISRO. Chandana specializes in the mechanical aspects of rockets, and Daka in avionics — aerospace electronics.  

Skyroot is one of several private companies to have arrived on the scene since the industry opened up. When the Indian Space Association launched in December 2020, it had just five members, but, the association’s director general Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Anil Kumar Bhatt told Arab News, that number has already increased tenfold.
“The private space players’ ecosystem is growing in India ... many new start-ups are coming up,” he said.

India has been in the global space market since the 1960s, but its current share is only 2 percent, worth an estimated $9.6 billion in 2020. The country’s target is to reach $12.8 billion by 2025.

There are currently slightly more than 100 private startups in the Indian space sector and Bhatt estimates that they have, since 2020, received about $240 million from venture capitalists.

Bhatt is confident that India’s presence in the global space sector will increase greatly in the near future.

“Competition will make space exploration cheaper. Disruptive technology introduced by the private players has reduced the cost of launch by nearly one-fifth,” Bhatt said. “In 10 years, we expect (India’s share of the global space market) to reach around 10 percent.”

Dhruva Space, another successful Indian startup from Hyderabad, develops satellite platform structures and subsystems. Its CEO, Sanjay Nekkanti, welcomes the government’s support for the space industry.

“The current government has been very forthcoming in bringing about an interesting revolution where private players experience a level playing field in trying to support not just local requirements but also global requirements too,” he told Arab News.

Dhruva Space launched two radio communication nanosatellites in November, and is readying to launch satellites of up to 40 kg this year.

“As India awaits the Space Act, we will see a tremendous increase in the demand for satellites in the coming years, fueling growth for satellite-enabled services,” Nekkanti said.

“The potential for innovative space applications is immense, especially if established aerospace companies form partnerships with businesses that traditionally haven’t ventured into orbit — for example, pharmaceutical or agricultural companies. Satellites already play a vital role in the communications of everyone’s daily lives, so the imminent growth will enhance this role.”


Man drives into people in German airport garage, some hurt

Updated 11 sec ago

Man drives into people in German airport garage, some hurt

Man drives into people in German airport garage, some hurt
BERLIN: A man drove into several pedestrians in a parking garage at the Cologne-Bonn Airport in western Germany on Friday and there were some injuries, police said.
The man also drove into several cars, German news agency dpa reported. Police said there were indications that the man had mental health issues.
No other details on the incident were immediately available.

Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm the population

Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm the population
Updated 40 min 11 sec ago

Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm the population

Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm the population
  • Russia reacted furiously to plans outlined by Britain earlier this week to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine

MOSCOW: Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday that the use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm Ukrainian troops, the wider population and negatively affect the country’s agriculture sector for decades or even centuries.
Russia has reacted furiously to plans outlined by Britain earlier this week to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine.
London says they are a conventional form of ammunition, but President Vladimir Putin said the move showed NATO members were sending weapons with a “nuclear component” to Kyiv.
“The West is well aware of the negative consequences of using depleted uranium ammunition,” Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces of Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement on Friday.
He said data on the use of depleted uranium by the United States and is allies in the Balkans and Iraq showed serious and lasting negative impacts on local populations and the environment.
Ukraine’s agricultural industry could suffer “for decades, if not centuries, into the future,” he said.
Critics of the use of depleted uranium, such as the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, say the dust created by such weapons can be breathed in while munitions which miss their target can poison groundwater and soil.
Countries such as the United States and Britain say depleted uranium is a good tool for destroying a modern tank. Britain says in guidance that inhaling enough depleted uranium dust to cause injury would be difficult.
Russia’s defense ministry on Friday disputed those claims and said the use of depleted uranium shells, compared to Tungsten-based ammunition, “has no significant advantage” on the battlefield.
The Royal Society said in a report in 2002 that the risks to the kidney and other organs from the use of depleted uranium munitions are very low for most soldiers in the battlefield and for those living in the conflict area.
Russia is also known to produce uranium weapons along with around 20 other countries, according to the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons.


Kremlin: Important to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline

Kremlin: Important to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline
Updated 24 March 2023

Kremlin: Important to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline

Kremlin: Important to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline
  • Spokesperson: Ongoing investigation into blasts that struck the pipelines last September must be conducted with full transparency

MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Friday said it was important to identify an object discovered next to one of the Nord Stream pipelines, and said the ongoing investigation into blasts that struck the pipelines last September must be conducted with full transparency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters it was a positive sign that Denmark had invited the Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help salvage an unidentified object found close to the Baltic Sea pipelines.
“It’s certainly positive news when the owner of the pipeline is invited to take part in very important phases of the investigation,” Peskov said.
Last week, Danish authorities said a tubular object, protruding around 40 cm (16 inches) from the seabed and 10 cm in diameter, had been found during an inspection of the last remaining intact Nord Stream pipeline by its operator, Nord Stream 2 AG.
“It is critically important to determine what kind of object it is, whether it is related to this terrorist act — apparently it is — and to continue this investigation. And this investigation must be transparent,” Peskov added.
Three of the four pipelines of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas links were hit in a still-unexplained explosion last September.
Russia has, without evidence, blamed Britain and the United States for the blasts, while European investigators have not said who they believe was responsible.


Myanmar arrests about 150 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia

Myanmar arrests about 150 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia
Updated 24 March 2023

Myanmar arrests about 150 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia

Myanmar arrests about 150 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia
  • Group of men, women and children was arrested in Thanbyuzayat township in southern Myanmar
  • Myanmar is facing genocide accusations at the United Nation’s top court following the mass exodus

YANGON: Myanmar authorities have arrested around 150 Rohingya suspected of trying to flee to Malaysia, an official said on Friday.
The group of men, women and children was arrested in Thanbyuzayat township in southern Myanmar, the official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The official did not specify why the group had been arrested, but the Muslim minority faces restrictions on traveling within Myanmar, where rights groups say they live in apartheid-like conditions.
“They were hiding nearby in hilly forest between two villages... We started arresting them since late last night after we got a tip-off,” the security source said.
According to initial reports, the group had traveled by boat from western Rakhine state and planned to travel on to Thailand and then Malaysia by road, the official said.
A number of non-Rohingya suspected of trafficking the group were also arrested, and police were looking for around 30 more people, according to the source.
A military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017 sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh with harrowing stories of murder, rape and arson.
Myanmar is facing genocide accusations at the United Nation’s top court following the mass exodus.
Widely viewed in Myanmar as interlopers from Bangladesh, Rohingya are denied citizenship — along with access to health care and education — and require permission to travel.
The arrests come days after the junta said it would begin welcoming back members of the minority living in Bangladesh as soon as next month in a pilot repatriation program.
The plan would see Myanmar “repatriate about 1,500 displaced persons,” state media on Friday quoted a senior border affairs official as saying.
The border official did not give a specific timetable and added Myanmar had “not received any response yet” to the plan.
The returning Rohingya would be placed in a “transit camp for a short period” before being resettled in 15 villages, the official said.
“For their safety and security, we have police stations near the 15 villages,” it added.
Thousands of Rohingya risk their lives each year making perilous journeys from camps in Bangladesh and Myanmar to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia.
Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who has dismissed the Rohingya identity as “imaginary,” was head of the armed forces during the 2017 crackdown.


457 arrested, 441 police injured in France unrest: minister

457 arrested, 441 police injured in France unrest: minister
Updated 24 March 2023

457 arrested, 441 police injured in France unrest: minister

457 arrested, 441 police injured in France unrest: minister
  • There had been 903 fires lit in the streets of Paris during by far the most violent day of protests since they began in January
  • British King Charles III’s visit to France has been postponed amid mass strikes

PARIS: A total of 457 people were arrested and 441 security forces injured on Thursday during nationwide protests against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pensions reform, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Speaking to the CNews channel on Friday morning, Darmanin also said that there had been 903 fires lit in the streets of Paris during by far the most violent day of protests since they began in January.

“There were a lot of demonstrations and some of them turned violent, notably in Paris,” Darmanin added, saying the toll was “difficult” while praising the police for protecting the more than million people who marched around France.

Police had warned that anarchist groups were expected to infiltrate the Paris march and young men wearing hoods and facemasks were seen smashing windows and setting fire to uncollected rubbish in the latter stages of the demonstration.

Darmanin, a rightwing hard-liner in Macron’s centrist government, dismissed calls from protesters to withdraw the pensions reform which cleared parliament last week in controversial circumstances.

“I don’t think we should withdraw this law because of violence,” he said. “If so, that means there’s no state. We should accept a democratic, social debate, but not a violent debate.”

Elsewhere on Thursday, the entrance to Bordeaux city hall was set on fire during clashes in the southwestern wine-exporting hub.

“I have difficulty in understanding and accepting this sort of vandalism,” the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, told RTL radio on Friday.

“Why would you make a target of our communal building, of all people of Bordeaux? I can only condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

A state visit by Britain’s King Charles III has been postponed amid mass strikes and protests in France, according to a statement issued by the French President’s office.
The king had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday.
The Elysee palace in France said in a statement that the French and British governments made the decision together after a call between Macron and Charles on Friday morning.