"Private Indian Startup's Thermal-Imaging Satellite Launched via Rideshare Mission"
CubeSat
Standardised modular nanosatellite, typically a 10 cm cube, built from commercial components.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Orbital band roughly 160-2,000 km above Earth's surface.
India's space programme was for decades an exclusively state-led enterprise anchored in ISRO's mandate to use space technology for national development. Private firms were largely limited to supplying components to ISRO rather than owning satellites or offering end-to-end commercial services. This changed in 2020, when the government opened the space sector to non-government entities across the full value chain, from building satellites and launch vehicles to offering commercial space-based services. The Indian Space Policy, 2023 consolidated this shift into a single overarching framework, and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) was set up as the regulatory and facilitation body that authorises and hand-holds private players, while ISRO continues to focus on frontier national missions.
State governments have begun competing to attract this emerging spacetech industry. Gujarat became the first state to notify a dedicated Spacetech Policy (2025-30), offering incentives such as assistance with launch costs, support for intellectual property protection, and subsidies for testing infrastructure. This reflects a broader pattern of states crafting sector-specific industrial policies to capture high-technology manufacturing and innovation investment, much as states have historically competed for automobile or electronics manufacturing hubs.
Within this reformed structure, satellites are classified by mass and function. CubeSats are a standardised class of nanosatellites, typically cubes of about 10 cm per side built from modular, commercially available components, which keeps development costs and timelines far lower than custom-built satellites. Microsatellites are larger, weighing between 10 kg and 100 kg. Satellites of different classes are frequently launched together on a single rocket through rideshare missions, where one launch vehicle carries dozens of unrelated payloads from different countries and companies into similar orbital planes, splitting launch costs among many customers.
A CubeSat built by an Ahmedabad-based startup is one such payload; weighing about 1.5 kg, it was placed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), the orbital band roughly 160 km to 2,000 km above Earth, at an altitude of 500 km. …
Consider the following statements regarding India's space sector reforms:
1.In 2020, the Government of India permitted private entities to undertake end-to-end activities in the space domain.
2.IN-SPACe functions as a single-window agency to authorise and promote private space entities.
3.Under the Indian Space Policy, 2023, private companies are barred from owning satellites.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Match List-I (Entity/Policy) with List-II (Primary Function) and select the correct answer using the codes given below:
List-I
A.IN-SPACe
B.Indian Space Policy, 2023
C.Gujarat Spacetech Policy
List-II
1.First state-level dedicated spacetech policy offering launch-cost and IPR incentives
2.Single-window body authorising and regulating private space-sector entities
3.Overarching national framework enabling end-to-end private participation in space activities
Consider the following statements about CubeSats:
1.They are a standardised class of nanosatellites typically measuring about 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm.
2.They are built primarily using custom-designed components unique to each mission.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Consider the following pairs:
Category : Typical Mass Range
1.CubeSat : 1-2 kg (per unit)
2.Microsatellite : 10-100 kg
3.Nanosatellite : Above 500 kg
How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?
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