Is it Time to Consider Spacetech Stocks?
Space Age began in October 1957 when the USSR launched the Sputnik satellite. As per European Space Agency estimates, since then, nearly 15,000 satellites have been put into orbit. But here is the kicker.
Anywhere between 70,000 to 100,000 satellites will be launched in the next 15 years. And over 80% will be small satellites weighing less than 500 kg. In 2022, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) turned 50.
The institution's R&D activities over last 5 decades were reasonably secretive, if not obscure. They were certainly not in the realm of commoners like us to track. So, space related commercial activities were almost unthinkable.
But in the last few years, things changed. And dramatically so. Most of the changes germinated in the space startups.
But how many private Spacetech companies have you heard of apart from SpaceX? Well, if you haven't heard of many, be prepared for it now. For instance, in 2018, two undergraduate students at BITS Pilani were working on artificial intelligence project. They faced a problem.
Their analysis was handicapped by the lack of high-resolution satellite imagery data. They soon realised there is a market for a satellite company to offer high-resolution imagery data. This was the start of Pixxel Space, a space tech startup which offers high resolution satellite imagery.
Dhruva Space founder Sanjay Nekkanti's obsession with satellites began when he was still in college. The country was basking in the success of Chandrayaan-1, India's first moon mission. The space programme had generated a lot of interest among students.
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