India in space

How ISRO is organised, how India got here, the law of space and where India goes next.

  1. What Is ISRO? — ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organisation, is India's national space agency, founded in 1969 and headquartered in Bengaluru.
  2. How did India go from Aryabhata to Chandrayaan-3? — In under fifty years India went from a 360 kg satellite launched on a Soviet rocket in 1975 to landing Chandrayaan-3 near the Moon's south pole in 2023.
  3. Why was Mangalyaan so cheap? — ISRO kept the Mars Orbiter Mission to ₹450 crore by flying a small spacecraft built on an existing design, launched on the modest PSLV and raised step by step.
  4. What do IN-SPACe, NSIL and Antrix do? — IN-SPACe authorises and supports private space activity, while NSIL and Antrix are government-owned companies that sell ISRO's rockets, satellites and services.
  5. Which private companies build rockets and satellites in India? — Start-ups such as Skyroot, Agnikul, Pixxel and Dhruva Space now build rockets and satellites; Skyroot's Vikram-I became India's first private rocket to reach orbit in 2026.
  6. What does India's Space Policy 2023 say? — The Indian Space Policy 2023 lets private companies do every kind of space activity, makes IN-SPACe the single authorising body, and refocuses ISRO on research.
  7. What is the Outer Space Treaty? — The 1967 Outer Space Treaty is the basic law of space: no nation can claim space or the Moon, no nuclear weapons in orbit, and states answer for their space activities.
  8. Who pays if a satellite causes damage? — Under the 1972 Liability Convention the launching state pays: always for damage on Earth or to aircraft, and for damage in space only if it was at fault.
  9. What are the Artemis Accords, and has India signed them? — The Artemis Accords are shared principles for peaceful space exploration led by NASA; India signed on 21 June 2023 as the 27th country.
  10. What is the Bharatiya Antariksh Station? — The Bharatiya Antariksh Station is India's planned five-module space station in low Earth orbit; its first module is due by 2028 and the full station by 2035.
  11. Who does India work with in space? — India works with dozens of countries, with more than 300 space agreements across 61 nations, from the Soviet launch of Aryabhata to the NASA-ISRO NISAR radar satellite.
  12. How can you work in India's space sector? — You can start with ISRO's YUVIKA programme at school, study at IIST, join ISRO as a scientist or engineer through GATE, or work for one of India's 400-plus space start-ups.
  13. How much does India spend on space? — The Department of Space's budget for 2026-27 is ₹13,705.63 crore, about a quarter of one per cent of the central government's budgeted spending.
  14. How big is India's space economy? — India's space economy was about $8.4 billion in 2022, roughly 2–3% of the world's, and the government aims to grow it to $44 billion by 2033.