'Tremendous response': 23 companies interested in ISRO's small satellite launch vehicle technology
Bengaluru (PTI): Seeing the success of ISRO's numerous missions, as many as 23 companies have evinced interest in acquiring the Indian space agency's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle technology, a top official said on Thursday.
Chairman of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) Pawan K Goenka said that they are keen to see how the private sector uses the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) technology.
"There has been a tremendous response, 23 companies have (so far) shown interest in applying for this technology. Of course only one of them will get it," he said.
IN-SPACe, an autonomous nodal agency under the Department of Space (DOS), formed in 2020 to promote, enable, authorise and supervise non-government entities (NGEs) to undertake space activities, had in July floated an Expression of Interest (EoI) for transfer of technology (ToT) of SSLV with the last date to respond to it being September 25.
"Technology transfer is something we are working on very aggressively, because we really want to see how ISRO's technology is leveraged by private sector. A lot is happening in that area and the biggest one is of course SSLV technology transfer, where we are transferring the launch vehicle lock, stock, and barrel completely to the private sector," Goenka said.
Addressing the inaugural function of the International Conference on Space here, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said, this is perhaps the first ever example where an agency anywhere in the world has transferred the full design of a launch vehicle to the private sector.
Further noting that there are 42 applications or space technologies to be transferred to the private sector, Goenka said ISRO is working very closely with IN-SPACe and vice versa to get the process going, and 19 technologies are ready for transfer.
IN-SPACe is working on the manufacturing aspect with state governments, he said, adding that the idea is to try and get all inclusive infrastructure, with a plug-and-play kind of setup for the industries focusing on manufacturing, where infrastructure will be provided by the state government.
"We are in the process of signing an MoU with one state and we are working with another state to make that happen," Goenka added.
He also said currently India's Space economy is at USD 8 billion and the vision is to take it to USD 44 billion by 2033. "Lot of work is being done towards this and everyone will have to play an important role for this."
A Catalogue of Indian Standards for Space Industry', developed by INSPACe and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) containing 15 standards that private players will be recommended to follow was released on the occasion.
Australian High Commission Deputy High Commissioner Sarah Storey during her address reiterated her country's commitment to collaborate and partner with India in the space sector, while Australian Space Agency Chief Enrico Palermo through a video message at the conference highlighted common areas of interest for both countries to collaborate.
Both of them lauded India's achievements in the space sector, particularly the Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 missions.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
