Ex-ISRO Chief Urges Teamwork With Space Start-ups for Big Missions

India should use the skills and tools of space start-ups for big national projects like putting an astronaut on the moon and setting up a national space station, instead of letting them compete with the Indian Space Research Organisation in a harmful way, former ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair said on Wednesday, October 7, 2026. Speaking in Thiruvananthapuram at a seminar on ISRO's future organized by the ISRO Pensioners' Association, Dr. Nair questioned why start-ups are building rockets that can carry 300 kilograms when ISRO's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle already carries up to 500 kilograms, noting such rocket-building projects only make sense if they are much cheaper, very reliable, and launch much faster. He stated that only ISRO currently has what it takes to handle massive goals like a crewed lunar landing or an orbital station, explaining that the agency alone can plan the full mission, divide it into parts, test them, and finish the job in the shortest time. Instead of rivalry, the former chairman called for teamwork among ISRO, start-ups, and other industries to help the national space program grow, pointing out that private industry ties actually started fifty years ago during the SLV-3 rocket project, while adding that the government should examine worries about foreign money flowing into space start-ups. Other notable speakers at the event included former Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre director M.C. Dathan, former KELTRON chairman and ISRO veteran N. Narayana Moorthy, ISRO Pensioners' Association president A.G. Rajendran, and general secretary Johnson S. Fernandez.

Context

India has opened its space sector to private companies in recent years to boost innovation and commercial growth, leading to a surge of new space-tech start-ups. Balancing this new commercial energy with the core leadership of established public space agencies is a key challenge for the country's future missions.