Editorial desk

Policy

The institutions, rules and long-range choices shaping how India operates in an increasingly crowded space domain.

Stylized radar dish below curved blue signal arcs and small orbital objects in a dark sky

Space safety

Assam lays foundation stone for ISRO radar facility

The Chandrapur site is part of Project NETRA; an early cloud radar is planned, while the space-tracking system has no disclosed commissioning date.

24 September 20261 min read

ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan and ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher standing together

International cooperation

ESA notice extends ISRO cooperation framework to 2032

ESA’s September 21 notice says an exchange of letters extends the agencies’ framework for five years and adds space weather plus human and robotic exploration.

22 September 20262 min read

Conceptual illustration of generic satellites, orbital paths, a launch and global communications links above Earth

Space policy

UK publishes £7.8bn space strategy through 2030

The September 8 policy groups government plans around satellite communications, orbital awareness, in-orbit services and access to space; it is a delivery framework, not a record of completed projects.

15 September 20262 min read

Conceptual illustration of a communications satellite linking a ground gateway and remote homes

India space policy

DCC approves India’s satcom spectrum assignment terms

Reports cite a 5% adjusted-gross-revenue charge, falling to 4% for rural and remote service; Cabinet action, spectrum assignment and security steps remain unfinished.

14 September 20262 min read

Conceptual illustration of a deep-space research instrument linked by orbital arcs to abstract satellites and modular space hardware

Space policy

ISRO lays out role in space-sector reform clarification

The agency's September 6 statement keeps advanced research and national missions with ISRO while casting industry as the route to scale mature capabilities.

09 September 20262 min read

Skyroot's Kalam-250 rocket motor firing horizontally on a test stand at ISRO's SDSC SHAR facility

Policy

Andhra Pradesh order allotted Skyroot 294.67 acres for Tirupati rocket plant

The September 2025 order set the land allotment rate at ₹5 lakh per acre and recorded a ₹400-crore proposal; Telugu360 reported Nara Lokesh citing the rounded 300-acre figure on August 25, 2026.

31 August 20263 min read

Prime Minister Narendra Modi looking at a space-technology display with startup leaders in a meeting room

Policy

Modi meets 20 space-startup leaders, urging wider uses of their technology

The August 21 meeting put the private space sector before the prime minister, but the official account announced no new funding, authorisations, contracts or binding policy changes.

28 August 20264 min read

Conceptual illustration of satellites above India linking to a gateway and a generic mobile phone

India space policy

Starlink’s reported Gen 2 filing adds a constellation step in India

A reported application to IN-SPACe would seek authority to provide Gen 2 capacity in India, but it does not settle the separate spectrum and security steps before customer service can begin.

27 August 20264 min read

Conceptual illustration of communications satellites linking India to a ground gateway and rural homes

India space policy

India’s satellite broadband licences are not commercial launch approvals

Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite have licences and provisional spectrum for compliance work, but the government’s latest record does not put any of them into a nationwide consumer rollout.

24 August 20265 min read

ISRO, IN-SPACe, NSIL and HAL officials holding the signed SSLV technology-transfer documents at ISRO Headquarters

Space policy

ISRO plans gradual transfer of mature rocket manufacturing to industry

PSLV and LVM3 transfer calls were already limited to private Indian entities. The change concerns who builds and commercialises mature vehicles, not an immediate end to ISRO missions or government launch work.

22 August 20264 min read

Diagram linking one already-compromised cFS application in NOS3 to five tested paths: control of a peer app, misleading sender identity, a command to unrelated simulated hardware, an action that looks legitimate in operator data, and altered behaviour that resumes after reset

Space cybersecurity

Security preprint tests five cFS privilege-abuse paths in NASA simulator

Researchers used a malicious onboard component in NOS3 to restart peer apps, spoof identity, command unrelated hardware, blur operator attribution and resume altered behaviour after reset. The study reports a controlled experiment, not an operational spacecraft breach.

20 August 20266 min read

Editorial data graphic comparing about 33,000 exposed hosts in Starlink’s autonomous system with a 1.78 million-host non-Starlink sample, highlighting ninefold and sixfold operating-system vulnerability gaps in Haiti and Colombia and regional weak-protocol clusters

Space cybersecurity

Preprint finds regional security gaps among exposed Starlink-connected hosts

A Censys snapshot tied about 33,000 exposed IPs inside Starlink’s network to higher operating-system vulnerability and legacy-protocol rates in several regions, but it did not test Starlink infrastructure, prove exploitability or establish cause.

20 August 20265 min read