Dismissing reports claiming a possible privatisation of the space agency and describing them as "baseless and incorrect", the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Sunday that it will continue to remain the principal institution for advanced space research and technology development in India.
In a long post on microblogging site X (formerly Twitter), the space agency clarified the claims and said the participation of private sector in space is not at all about reducing the ISRO's role, but to enable it to focus even more strongly on the next generation of space programme, while industry scales mature technologies and capabilities.
"There has been considerable reporting in parts of the media around the future role of ISRO including speculations and misinformation that there is an attempt to privatise ISRO or reduce its role. These assertions are completely baseless and incorrect," ISRO said. "We wish to categorically state that ISRO will neither be privatised nor will its importance be diminished."
"Meanwhile, mature and routinely manufactured systems can increasingly be scaled through industry. Production of mature launch vehicles, routine satellites and other established systems can increasingly be undertaken by industry or PSUs through appropriate competitive processes," it added.
In a separate X post, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) chairperson Pawan Goenka also dismissed such reports and said that ISRO's role will not be diminished and it will remain the bedrock of India's space sector. IN-SPACe is an autonomous agency under the Department of Space that promotes, enables, authorises and supervises various space activities of non-governmental entities.
The clarification from ISRO and Goenka came after nine employee association of the wrote a letter to space agency's chairperson Dr V Narayanan. The letter dated September 4 sought clarity from Narayanan and pointed to Goenka's August 21 comments when reportedly said "eventually, ISRO will not make any launch vehicles and not manufacture any launch vehicles".
However, Goenka on Sunday also dismissed the reports, while saying the IN-SPACe will continue facilitating and authorising greater non-government participation, while the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) - which is the commercial arm of ISRO - will help in commercialising mature capabilities.
"ISRO will remain at the core of India’s space programme leading frontier research and the next generation of national missions, including the Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035, an Indian crewed mission to the Moon by 2040, next-generation launch systems, and sustained lunar and planetary exploration," he said.
ALSO READ:
