ISRO Unveiled: 10 Mind-Blowing Secrets of India's Space Pioneers!

 Shooting for the stars

• ISRO is the 6th largest space agency in the world and holds an exceptional success rate.

• India’s space economy was valued at ₹36,794 crore and accounted for about 0.23% of the country’s GDP.

• This contributes 2%-3% to the global space economy.

• The size of the sector is expected to reach $13 billion by 2025.

 Not just rocket science

• ISRO, has become a specialist in launching satellites and costs a third of SpaceX launches.

• India also launched the Mangalyaan in 2014 which cost less than the budget to make the Hollywood movie “The Martian”. Ironical?

• Chandrayaan 3, the third Moon mission is estimated to cost ₹615 crores, one of the most cost-effective space missions.

 Rocketing Revenues

• According to the report revenue generated by the Department of Science (DoS) touched ₹2,780 crore in 2022-23 from Rs 929 crore in 2020-21.

• ISRO earned approximately $279 million (January 2018 - November 2022) from the launch of foreign satellites.

• ISRO carried out two commercial missions in October’22 and March’23 for Sunil Bharti Mittal led OneWeb, earning a total revenue of ₹1100 crores.

• NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO reported that its projected revenue increased to ₹3,509 crore in 2023-24 from ₹1,731.8 crore in 2021-22.

 Economic Orbit

• With over 400 private space companies, India ranks fifth globally in number of space companies.

• Amid a favourable ecosystem for space startups in India, companies like Skyroot, SatSure, Dhruva, Bellatrix, etc. are flourishing to become India's SpaceX.

• Bengaluru is ranked among the top 3 in global aerospace and defence cities in attracting foreign investment.

 The Final Frontier

• India’s space economy will garner close to $13 billion in revenue in 2025, compared to around $9.6 billion in 2020.

• NASA and ISRO signed a partnership to collaborate on and launch NISAR - a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory. The mission is targeted to launch in 2024.

India is emerging as a leading alternative to launch satellites after SpaceX, Roscosmos, and China Aerospace Science & Technology Corporation.