Loading…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the first International Space Summit, held in Paris on President Emmanuel Macron's initiative, via video conference on 10 September 2026.
He argued for a safe, secure, peaceful and sustainable space domain anchored in international law and multilateral cooperation, and for open sharing of scientific data.
India's record as stated in the address: more than 430 satellites from 34 countries launched aboard Indian rockets, Chandrayaan-3's landing near the lunar south pole, and Aditya-L1's solar studies.
Targets restated: an Indian space station by 2035 and an Indian on the Moon by 2040.
France was described as a partner since the Indian space programme began at Thumba in the 1960s, with cooperation now spanning Earth observation and advanced technologies.
India's national space agency, executing launch vehicle, satellite and planetary missions; functions under the Department of Space.
Single-window autonomous body that authorises and promotes private space activity, created in the 2020 space-sector reforms; its headquarters was inaugurated on 10 June 2022.
Commercial arm of the Department of Space, handling satellite launch services, demand-driven missions and transfer of technology to industry.
The UN forum that frames international space law and debris-mitigation guidelines; constituted on 12 December 1959 and serviced by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).
Formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. It bars weapons of mass destruction in orbit, restricts celestial bodies to peaceful use, and holds that space is free for exploration for the benefit of all countries - the international law the address invokes.
Approved by the Union Cabinet on 6 April 2023 and released on 20 April 2023, it demarcates roles - ISRO for research and advanced missions, NSIL for commercialisation, IN-SPACe for authorisation - and opens the end-to-end space value chain to non-government entities.
Proposed in 1978 by NASA scientists Donald J. Kessler and Burton Cour-Palais: once debris density in low Earth orbit crosses a threshold, each collision generates fragments that cause further collisions, so debris multiplies on its own and orbits become unusable.
Simple Analogy: A motorway pile-up where every fresh crash leaves wreckage that causes the next.
GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology > Space Technology; GS Paper 2 > International Relations
General Awareness > Science and Technology and Current Affairs
Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre, the single-window authorising body for private space activity, headquartered at Bopal, Ahmedabad.
Self-sustaining cascade of orbital collisions caused by high debris density in low Earth orbit, described by Kessler and Cour-Palais in 1978.
UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, formed in 1959 and headquartered in Vienna, the forum where international space law is negotiated.