Voyager capitalizes on historic Prime Minister Modi visit

During his historic visit to the U.S. in late June, Indian Prime Minister Modi signed a number of high-profile deals with the U.S. spanning defense, renewable energy, technology collaboration, climate change, and, of course, the space industry. Most notably, NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) agreed to a joint mission to the ISS in 2024, and India became the 27th signatory to the Artemis Accords. While geopolitical agreements dominated the headlines, Voyager Space emerged as the biggest commercial space sector beneficiary – signing a two-part Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ISRO to explore using: 

1. ISRO’s Gaganyaan crewed vehicle for flights to Voyager’s Starlab. 

2. ISRO’s well-established Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for launching small satellites. 

The MoU marks India’s commitment to inclusion in humankind’s next greatest space race. It also sends a clear signal that space station operators are not looking to be solely dependent on SpaceX for getting their new astronauts to space. 

For Voyager, ISRO holds the potential to serve as both partner and customer. While the MoU highlights the usage of Gaganyaan as a transport vehicle, the space agency also has four civil astronauts of their own that have already gone through training and are awaiting flights to space. Starlab isn’t set to begin initial operations until at least 2027, but that is a full three years before ISRO’s own station is expected to be finished (approximately 5 – 7 years after the completion of the Gaganyaan spacecraft). Competitor Axiom’s rumored all-in mission cost was around $50M per astronaut... assuming a $20M/head price for just the Starlab stay (no launch/transportation cost in this case) could mean station hosting revenues alone of >$80M per year for Voyager.   

Of course, here at Quilty, we know that MoU’s are often not worth the paper they are written on, so investors have a right to be skeptical. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) – an independent agency focused on engaging non-government entities for space exploration – also signed an MoU with Blue Origin earlier in June to explore the use of ISRO assets to provide access to the company’s Orbital Reef space station. It seems that as much as space station operators are hedging their bets across launch vehicle providers, launch vehicle providers are also hedging their bets across space station operators.

SOURCE: https://www.eurasiantimes.com/us-seeks-collaboration-with-india-to-send-crew-to/