This article is written by Sugandh Khanna.

Introduction

Competing at the global level in space missions, India is now set for another leap to take. On June 24, 2020, the Union Government announced the formation of IN-SPACe, an autonomous body only meant for the private sector. The government felt that the nation is now ready for private missions. In the USA, SpaceX is the evolving company now taking part as a private body in space missions. It launched the Starship, which is a reusable launch vehicle in order to save the huge amount of money spent on such missions where the whole of the spacecraft never returns and gets destroyed on reaching the Earth’s atmosphere. This vehicle also prevents the space debris that is caused by such waste objects that are left behind in the space after a mission. SpaceX in the USA was the first private company to take this matter at hand and not the government.

India, now, is finally taking this step too where the country is allowing the private sector to enter this sector. Earlier all the tasks were done by the Indian Space Research Organisation solely. A highly debatable topic finally has a decision. But for this decision to be a successful one, there is a long time. The private sector, though now will be having the freedom to enter this sector, would still require a lot of expertise for the success of their missions. These organizations would need help and supervision from the ISRO which has been working on the space projects since the country began to work in this arena.

Entry of private sector in the space industry

Even before the announcement by the government, the private sector was in the space industry. However, it was only played the part of manufacturing certain parts of the missions. Their manufacture was tied with the ISRO and the sector only produced items. The private sector has more resources than the government monopoly. However, since it lacked the expertise in the sector, the government was hesitant to allow these companies to carry out their own missions. Due to this, the ISRO had to perform all the large as well as small operations by itself without the involvement of the private sector. Majorly due to this reason, the country contributes to only 3% of the industry’s worth. Questions were arising on whether to allow the private sector to enter the industry or not. Even though it will help the ISRO with the resource scarcity problem and will expand the country’s contribution to the industry’s worth, it shall be a huge task to manage, train and supervise the private companies until they get self-sufficient to perform the tasks on its own. However, now the country is ready to let it the private sector which would allow the country to progress at a huge level.

In space

The autonomous body has been announced to fall under the supervision of and will be a part of the ISRO. For the sector to be ready to commence its own operations, it requires a lot of training. Along with that, the private companies need to adhere to the space treaty to which India is a party. The IN-SPACe, along with providing guidance has another task at hand which is, to help these companies financially. Even though the private sector is financially equipped to handle resources, the cost involved in space missions is huge. This might give rise to the possibility of most companies to still require financial aid despite having resources. The government, through this body, shall maintain a check over the activities and their adherence to the norms. In case of any mistake or non-adherence to the articles of the treaties, the government shall be liable for the activities of the private companies. To mitigate such errors and carelessness, the body shall keep the government informed of the work performed by the companies. Any company which enters the sector to perform any mission of exploration involving a satellite, rocket launcher, astronaut sending in outer space, shall be registered with ISRO so as to keep the supervision intact and check the quality of the resources before they are launched.

The panel to head the body has not yet been decided. However, the secretary of the body is currently going to be the chairman of ISRO, Dr. K. Sivan. The chairman has explained that the panel of the board shall be composed in such a manner that the operations of ISRO are not disrupted and carry on smoothly and independently.

United Nations treaties and principles on outer space

India became a party to the international treaty in March 1967 and was ratified in 1982. Being a ratified member binds the country to adhere to the norms of the treaty with responsibility. The treaty came into existence mainly to emphasize the peaceful explorations in the space. It forbids the member parties to claim any part of the space or celestial body as its own and also denies them from establishing any arms outside including nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons.

The creation of IN-SPACe shall also have implications on India in the purview of the treaty. The treaty lays down norms for the organizations apart from the state organization as well.

In Treaties on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, articles have been given where the private companies are either directly or indirectly mentioned.

In Article VI and VII of the treaty, the States are responsible for all the activities of our space irrelevant to the fact whether they are carried out by the government or the non-government organizations. Even the liability of the actions performed by them lies on the party State which is commencing a mission, whether manned or unmanned. Article IX of the treaty guides the states in situations where there is doubt on the safety of the mission. Since the state is responsible for the actions of the non-government activities as well, if any mission is suspected to be unsafe, it is the responsibility of the state to seek international guidance on the matter before initiating any launch.

To further elucidate the responsibility and liability of the party-state, the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects is looked into. Article II and III put entire liability of any damages or harm occurred during the mission of the part state which initiated the launch. Even if harm is caused to a third-party state, the liability stands. With coherence to the responsibility of the state party, this would imply that in a situation where the non-governmental sector commencing the mission defaults and damages are incurred either by another party state or harm is caused to outer space, the state of the organization shall be responsible for it.

The Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space mandates all party states to register their launch object with the Security-General of the United Nations as per article II and IV. The state shall be registering government as well as private objects before the mission.

Implication of international treaties in India

Since international space treaties hold the state responsible for any actions performed by the private sector of their nation, the private sector is never entirely free to perform its functions as per its will. NASA, with all the gathered experience, allows its private organizations to commence the operations where it only orders them to do so. However, in a country like India where the private sector is just emerging, this level of liberty cannot be given to private organizations.

IN-SPACe shall be a guiding factor in the sector to learn about the industry. Quality checks will be done in the autonomous body to avoid any fault committed by the organizations. If not done so, the organization may destroy the mission and the Indian Government shall be liable to pay the damages. Along with all the liabilities that the nation would have, it shall still not be advantageous to give full control of the missions to the private entities because each object that is launched in the outer space is accounted by the United Nations and can only be registered by the state before the commencement of the mission. Dealing with space, although now not that uncommon is still a highly sensitive area where a huge amount of resources, time, expertise, and risk is required. Anything can go wrong up space due to unforeseen circumstances. A recent example of this would be the failure of the unmanned mission of Chandrayan-3 which lost communication from the Earth just before landing. Such risks and circumstances can arise at any moment and cannot be always dealt with. Such risks need to be mitigated. For this, the supervision of an expert body is required.

The ISRO has been working on space missions for decades and has earned global recognition. However, due to resource paucity, the country has contributed very less to the worth of the industry. It cannot be denied that the ISRO has done wonders in proving itself to be a blooming organization in the research field of space. This has come through years of research and missions. The private sector cannot achieve this immediately and would require many decades to reach ISRO’s current level. Thus, entire control cannot be given to the sector which will simply be experimenting with their skills on the missions. They would require all the help that they can get.

Conclusion

IN-SPACe is just a step towards opening the gates of the space industry for the private sector. Merely opening the gates is sufficient for the sector as of now. With time, liberties shall be given so that private enterprises can be as independent as possible. However, they can never be entirely independent because the state will always be liable for their actions as long as India remains a party to these international outer space treaties. Furthermore, the government needs to register its objects not just with itself but also with the United Nations.

IN-SPACe is not just required because of the country’s liability towards the party states but also for their welfare. Peaceful missions need to be carried out and any harm to any part of the Earth cannot be tolerated. As a responsible state, it is the duty of the country to think about the welfare of the world and reduce all risks of damages. Therefore, the private sector cannot be given full control of its actions. Though the step is a leap forward for the country, it remains merely a step in the success of the country to contribute to the space industry’s worth.

References 

“We are Unlocking India’s Space Potential”; Reuben Singh; 13.07.2017; India Today.

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