But then how many of them are seriously working to achieve their stated goals is a question mark because outer space is a harsh place. That’s the reason you also have so many startups also coming up. But it is not only about getting individuals and companies excited, there’s also a lot of other learning in the process. From a child to a researcher, everyone wants to go into space today. We are living in the best of times I should say. Since you are a part of India’s journey towards developing a robust spacetech ecosystem, how do you see it progressing? We thought that instead of restricting ourselves to a science experiment, let’s develop a microsatellite and test that? And that’s how we ended up building the 64 grams KalamSat in 2017. We decided that rather than sending a heavy satellite into space, we could start with a satellite that was the size of a gulabjamun! Immediately afterward the universe conspired and we got the opportunity to create a payload for a competition announced by the Cubes in Space programme along with NASA and Colorado Space Grant Consortium. We didn’t know what to do as we are essentially a bootstrap company. The other space agencies were asking for an exorbitant fee in the $1-2 lakh range per kilo. ![]() At that time, ISRO didn’t offer many opportunities for student projects, while SpaceX had just about launched operations. We, therefore, decided to jump into orbital launches. ![]() We had launched balloons before that and received tremendous accolades. That was a moment of immense pride for us. ![]() It was also the first time that a student satellite from India was launched aboard a NASA rocket. Space Kidz is an unusual name for an aerospace company. She is the only Indian to be decorated with the ambassadorship to the world’s three leading space centres, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) of the US, the European Space Agency (ESA) of the EU and the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre of Russia. Encouraged by the words of ISRO and IN-SPACe chairpersons, the company is presently working on the prototype of a satellite or spacecraft bus to carry payloads to the Moon, Dr Kesan told Business Today’s Manish Pant in an exclusive interaction. Officially registered in 2016, the company recently took the dreams of 750 school girls from the remotest villages across India into space with the successful launch of the AzaadiSAT-2 aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s SSLV-D2 launch vehicle. Founder & CEO of Space Kidz India, Dr Srimathy Kesan has committed herself to identify and nurturing future scientists by working in the area of space education with schoolchildren.
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