Indian citizen astronaut to fly to space in upcoming mission, you can apply too

New Delhi: The Space Exploration and Research Agency (Sera) has included an Indian in an upcoming suborbital manned spaceflight as part of a programme designed to increase interest in space activities.

This will be the second time that an Indian citizen will fly to space and also the second time an Indian-origin individual will travel on a Blue Origin mission.

The mission was announced on Monday, and registrations will begin in August. Sera, a US agency, said in a statement that any individual with proof of Indian citizenship can apply to be chosen to fly aboard a Blue Origin space tourism mission for a fee of $2.5 (~ ₹200). Six astronauts from various participating nations will fly on Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard rocket.

The timeline for the launch of the mission was not disclosed. Joshua Skurla, cofounder of Sera, told Mint in an interview that the process of voting and selection of the astronaut will run for about six months, and the mission will take place in the coming years. Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin does not publish its launch schedule ahead of time.

Individuals who register will get to put up their own astronaut page and will be needed to seek out public votes. The final candidate will be the individual who gets the most number of public votes, and will be flown to Blue Origin’s Texas base for a three-day training period prior to taking off.

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Sam Hutchinson, cofounder of Sera, confirmed that all costs of the mission will be borne by the body, which counts Blue Origin as one of its partners.

"We are a privately funded space company, and we're looking at establishing a commercial platform to offer space launch and scientific experiment services in the near future. We'll draw revenue from such operations going forward—as of now, all costs of the mission will be funded for the participants," he said.

Sera, a privately funded entity, has raised capital many times since 2022. Skurla and Hutchinson did not disclose the quantum of funding that it has so far raised.

Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon founder Bezos, is a commercial space firm that specialises in building reusable rockets akin to Elon Musk’s SpaceX—in a bid to make space travel more affordable. The ongoing crop of missions seeks to establish commercial space tourism and also carry scientific payloads for ancillary experiments.

Suborbital flight

The spaceflight in question is suborbital, which suggests that the New Shepard launcher will not attain escape velocity to go beyond earth’s gravitational forces. However, Blue Origin and Sera advertise that the mission will go past 100 km above the earth’s surface, surpassing the Karman line—the globally accepted threshold between the earth’s atmosphere and outer space. The entire duration of the spaceflight will be 11 minutes.

The chosen candidate will become only the second Indian citizen to fly to space, four decades after squadron leader Rakesh Sharma flew into orbital space aboard the erstwhile Soviet Union’s Soyuz-T11 mission. However, the Blue Origin mission will be suborbital, keeping Sharma the only Indian citizen to cross into outer space.

Sharma and six Indian-origin individuals have flown to space, including on suborbital spaceflights. Notable names include Indian-origin astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who became the first native-born woman in space aboard the International Space Station. Chawla died during US launcher Columbia’s ill-fated 2003 mission, which ended with the lander disintegrating during its reentry into earth’s atmosphere.

The latest India-origin individuals to travel to suborbital space include Vijayawada-born Overseas Citizen of India Gopichand Thotakura, who flew aboard Blue Origin’s penultimate NS-25 mission on 19 May. On 8 June, US-born Andy Sadhwani, who works as a propulsion engineer for SpaceX, flew aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity suborbital spacecraft.

New-age services such as those of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic seek to showcase space as a commercial avenue, and also collect ample data to streamline longer human spaceflight endeavours in the future.

Sera has also been in touch with private space firms around the world, including in India.

"We've made a few trips to India this year, and our first trip was based on a discussion that we've had with In-Space (India's Centre-affiliated private space promotions body) last year, which explained legislative updates in the Indian space economy. We followed this up with a few exploratory conversations with space startups in India. We chose India for this mission on the basis of all the discussions around the space economy and the involvement of the private sector. We'd like to develop these conversations further," Skurla said.

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India is developing its own human spaceflight programme under Gaganyaan, through the central space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). Last week, Isro chairman S Somanath said in New Delhi that Gaganyaan’s first unmanned trial mission will take off by the end of this year, with 2040 earmarked to land the first Indian citizen on the moon.

Isro has selected four astronauts who would travel to orbital space aboard Gaganyaan prior to an attempted crewed moon mission. India is in the process of building its own space station, for which Isro will launch the first module by 2028.

Bill Nelson, administrator of US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said last month that the US, which is the biggest benefactor of space exploration programmes, will collaborate with India towards making the space station.

According to Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner of Speciale Invest, the move by Sera could underline clear commercial space business opportunities, even in India.

"Such a mission sets a clear stage for commercial human spaceflight beyond Isro’s Gaganyaan—which already has four Indian astronauts who will travel to space," he said. "As an investor, there is clear merit to building commercial human spaceflight capability. Within this, there are various subsets to monetising such a venture—one of which is space tourism. Of course, there will be a certain level of pricing attached to it, which would make it a niche market. But, there’s clear merit." 

Rajaram's early-stage venture capital fund is an investor in Agnikul Cosmos—one of the two prominent private space startups looking to build 3D-printed small rockets capable of launching satellites and related payload on demand.