SRIHARIKOTA: No sooner had Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace scripted history on Friday, yet another city start up Dhruva Space is waiting in the wings to launch two of its communications satellites into orbital space next week.

IN-SPACe chairman Pawan Goenka said that Dhruva Space is slated to launch its Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2 satellites into lower earth orbit from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre next Saturday. This apart, Chennai-based AgniKul Cosmos will be launching its suborbital rocket by the end of this year, Goenka said.

“The 0.5U CubeSats are slated to be ejected from 1U Dhruva Space Satellite Orbital Deployer, onboard PSLV C54,” a spokesperson said.

Goenka said IN-SPACe has given five authorisations to space non-government entities for undertaking space activities in India in six months and signed 16 MoUs.

The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Center (IN-SPACe) has been operating as a single-window, autonomous nodal agency of Department of Space to boost private space sector economy.

Goenka an FDI policy for space sector is expected to become a reality soon. “We have formulated a draft policy. It is now being reviewed by people. This process will take some time but everybody is aligned to easing up the FDI policy for space sector,” he said.

Goenka said the biggest benefit of opening up space sector to private players was that Isro can focus on high-end technology development, scientific missions, complex technologies, technical improvement in launch, vehicles and satellites and then pass them on to private sector for commercialising.

Source: TOI