HAL wins bid to privatise India's small satellite launch rockets

Bengaluru: Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has won the bid to privately make India's small satellite launch rockets, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Friday, the government's biggest step yet to open its fast-growing space industry to private players.

Reuters reported in February that three consortiums - Alpha Design Technologies, a unit of Adani Defence Systems and Technologies, state-backed Bharat Dynamics and HAL - were the finalists to acquire India's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) technology.

Fighter jet maker HAL had applied independently, ISRO said in a statement on Friday.

HAL's wining bid was 5.11 billion rupees ($59 million), Pawan Goenka, the head of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) told reporters, adding that the technology transfer phase will take two years.

Shares of HAL rose as much as 1.6 per cent to hit session's high at Rs 4,980 after the announcement.

The move to hand the SSLV's technology to HAL marks a significant shift for India's space industry, which has already granted satellite communication service licenses to global and domestic firms such as France’s Eutelsat and Reliance Jio’s satellite venture.

By winning the bid to make the rocket, capable of carrying 500kg payloads to low-Earth orbit, HAL will have the capability to independently build, own, and commercialize SSLV launches, Goenka added.

About 20 companies had initially expressed interest in bidding for the SSLV, the first privatisation of its kind under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy drive to open up India's space industry.

The global low Earth orbit launch vehicle market was valued at $13.9 billion in 2023 and is estimated to grow to about $44 billion by 2032, according to Global Market Insights.

India, which accounts for only 2 per cent of the global space economy, is eyeing a fivefold expansion to $44 billion by the end of the decade.