Modi-Macron meet paves way for Indian space tech startups to team up with French peers

The number of operational Indian space tech startups have increased from 50 in 2019 to 150 in 2023

In the backdrop of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to France, a few Indian space tech startups announced their tentative launches through tie-ups with French space companies.

Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace and Dhruva Space announced their launches on the sidelines of the Modi's visit to France for their national July 14 celebrations.

A statement by the French government said that end-to-end satellite infrastructure manufacturer Dhruva Space and French firm Kineis—a new satellite operator delivering global connectivity for Internet of Things (IoT)— will explore launching a satellite that they will operate jointly.

Launch vehicle maker Skyroot Aerospace announced that it is exploring a launch with French space company Promethee to augment its JAPETUS earth observation satellite constellation.

This development is also a reflection of the collaboration between India and France in space activities, which goes way back to the 1960s. This was also evidenced in the presence of Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos, as part of an Indian CEO delegation to France which met with Modi and Macron.

"It was an absolute honour to be at the CEO forum in Paris and share the stage with President Emmanuel Macron and our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is difficult to talk about the Indian Space Programme without bringing up France and we hope to retain the same at AgniKul Cosmos. There is so much to be done and I look forward to working with our French counterparts in this journey to space," Srinath Ravichandran, CEO and co-founder of Agnikul Cosmos, said.

Upcoming launches

Dhruva Space and French space company Kineis, a satellite IoT domain oeprator,  signed an MoU earlier this year to launch a satellite that they will operate jointly.

A release by French space agency Centre National D'etudes Spatiales (CNES) acknowledges that the first cooperation in the satellite IoT domain between France and India was in 2007 with the construction of an oceanography satellite carrying CNES's Agros instrument.

Now Kineis is also the operator of the Argos instrument on joint Oceansat-3/Argos mission orbited in 2022.

"Today, Kineis and Dhruva Space—two new growing space companies—are teaming up on a joint technological and commercial space project to enhance Kineis’ global IoT connectivity. This partnership with extend deployment of solutions worldwide, and notably in India, for such crucial applications as smart agriculture and fishing, wildfire prevention, humanitarian convoy and wildlife tracking, monitoring of energy networks and infrastructures, transport tracking and logistics," CNES said in a release.

"We see this partnership being one of the fruits borne of the hard work of two growing Space countries united by a common vision of the prowess of satellites," Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO and co-founder of Dhruva Space, said.

Skyroot is exploring a launch through Promethee, a French space company that manufactures nanosatellite constellations for earth observation.

"(Prométhée) together with Skyroot Aerospace, has decided to study the integration of Skyroot's Vikram launcher into the deployment process of the JAPETUS earth observation constellation. The discussions were led by Pawan Kumar Chandana, Co-founder and CEO of Skyroot, and Olivier Piepsz, President of Prométhée," the release by Prométhée said.