Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], June 11 (ANI): In a major boost to India's space industry, the Indian Government has granted support to Indian space infrastructure company Astrobase for its rocket engine, as per a statement by the company.

As per the release, the company has been selected for support under the 'Technology Adoption Fund (TAF) of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) for the development of its indigenous 80-ton Full Flow Staged Combustion (FFSC) LOX-methane rocket engine.'

'The support will accelerate the development of Astrobase's engine, a critical component of the company's broader vision to build advanced space infrastructure in India,' the release said.

According to the release, the engine is under hot-fire test at the company's propulsion test facility in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh.

As India works towards building a USD 44 billion space economy by 2034, the development marks an important milestone in strengthening the country's indigenous space infrastructure capabilities and expanding its participation in the global space value chain.

The grant agreement, linked to defined technical milestones, was signed by Neeraj Khandelwal, Co-Founder and CEO, Astrobase, during a ceremony hosted by Dr Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe, and attended by senior government and industry leaders, including Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal.

While addressing a press conference during the event, Union Minister Jitendra Singh highlighted a very critical factor regarding India's space industry. He said, 'Scaling up technology also would require money.'

'We need to have more and more of investments coming in domestically, internationally, whether in the form of philanthropy, from foundations, from business players,' he added.

Furthermore, contrasting India's space growth with China, he added, 'China has advanced so much....they said dump all the money to science technology... Xi Jinping was there, he said, science doesn't require freedom of the press. Science doesn't require freedom of speech; science requires only money. So, you have no Ayushman, you have no Ladli Beti, you have no Ujjwala, no PM Kishan. We can't be doing that. But in spite of that, if we are competitive, I think it's our, you know, strength. Then the other thing that was also decided at the same time was that for 10 years, no child policy.'

'I think we have human resource in abundance,' he added.

The Technology Adoption Fund (TAF) was established by IN-SPACe to accelerate the development and commercialisation of high-potential space technologies by Indian private-sector companies. (ANI)