A group of startup executives and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials visited SpaceX’s facilities in Hawthorne, California, last month as a part of the US Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Programme.
Startups like Pixxel and Digantara have used SpaceX’s rockets in the past for the launch of their satellites.
One startup founder told ET: “It’s just about showing him what the Indian space ecosystem is up to. More than 50% of space assets are of Starlink owned by Elon Musk.”
The main agenda during Musk’s visit will be satcom venture Starlink and electric car maker Tesla, startups said. “This trip is mainly about Tesla and servicing the Indian market through Starlink. I don’t think there is anything beyond this agenda,” said one of them, requesting not to be named.
Starlink is a satellite constellation operated by Starlink Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX, providing internet coverage to over 70 countries. It also aims to provide global mobile broadband.
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“Back in the day, we did not have a private ecosystem. Now the government has opened a lot of things including FDI relaxation. The meeting is just to show our budding private space ecosystem and talk about innovative technologies of Indian space companies,” this founder said. The Cabinet on February 21 allowed foreign direct investment (FDI) under automatic route in the space sector: up to 74% for satellite manufacturing, 49% for launch vehicles and up to 100% for manufacturing of components and systems. The decision was notified on Tuesday, ahead of Musk’s trip to India.
The easing of FDI rules will enable Indian space startups working on capital-intensive space products to access this global pool of capital to expand manufacturing and production capacity. Indian space startups can now explore innovative business models to reach a growing addressable market around the world.
India has been one of the major spacefaring nations after the success of several space missions, such as Chandrayaan-3. “It is good to show the Indian legacy,” one of the startup founders said.