Bezos' Blue Origin eyes India's space tourism potential

The Space Policy 2023, cleared on April 6, allows private players into the sector

India's plans to begin space tourism by 2030 is likely to get a boost with ISRO beginning talks with global majors in pursuit of tie-ups, one of which in Amazon founder Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin, Business Standard reported.

The Space Policy 2023, cleared on Thursday, allows private players into the sector and is expected to give academia, startups and the industry a fillip.

"Space tourism is a commercial activity. We are also looking at private players if they are interested. If the industry comes forward for tech development, we are open to assistance and mentorship. Blue Origin was discussing it from a commercial point of view, not for joint development and establishing facilities in India," a source told BS.

ISRO chairman S Somnath reportedly indicated last month that space tourism could kick off in the country by 2030 with an estimated cost of around 'Rs 6 crore.' However, before India's space tourism takes to the sky, reusable launch vehicles are vital since they will make the prospect economical.

ISRO on April 2 successfully tested the Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) at Chitradurga, Karnataka. However, at present, only Elon Musk's SpaceX has reusable space vehicles.

Read | Reusable launch vehicle a gamechanger for ISRO

The BS source also noted that without reusable vehicles space tourism remains impractical. However, there has been a surge in space tourists in 2021 and 2022, with A K Bhatt, the Director General of Indian Space Association commenting "there is a lot of interest in this internationally."

However, he noted that it may take time in India and depends largely on ISRO's human space mission being completed.

India's space tourism plan remains in nascent stages for now, the BS source noted, saying, "As of now, Gaganyaan is the approved plan. Space tourism, whether it’s Isro or industry through public-private partnership mode has to be discussed. It requires a long approval cycle."

Currently, companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, and Virgin Galactic are engaged in space tourism across the world and ISpA data shows 13 tourists have been to the International Space Station (ISS) since 2001, while 27 people have gone on suborbital rides thus far.