ISRO Signs Agreement with Agnikul

Big news out of India. ISRO has signed the first agreement with a private company for access to facilities and expertise to help with development of their small launch vehicle, Agnibaan:

The agreement is the first one of its kind, the Department has signed after the establishment of IN-SPACe, the authorization and regulatory body under DOS for enabling private players to undertake space activities in India. Under the NDA, the company will be enabled for accessing the facilities and technical expertise available in ISRO centers to proceed with their launch vehicle development program.

This comes after news I missed about two months back, that Alaska Aerospace Corporation had signed an agreement with Agnikul to launch from Kodiak.

With so many companies from around the world already launching on Indian vehicles at attractive prices, a healthy commercial industry there could have major effects globally. Much more so than in China at the current moment, since it’s a pretty big hurdle to launch there for a lot of nations.

Also, bonus points to ISRO for the marquee tag on their website.