Amazon Invests in Indian Space Tech Startups, Partners with ISRO

With India’s space sector poised to touch $13 billion by 2025,Amazon Web Services (AWS) is set to invest in India’s space startups and also partner with the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Meanwhile, ISRO is on a hiring spree as it seeks to fill 68 scientist and engineer positions. Click here to apply. 

Read: Agnikul and Other Space tech Startups Fueling India’s Space Ambitions 

AWS Space Experiments 

At AWS re:invent 2022, the cloud provider successfully ran AWS suite and machine learning services on an orbiting satellite in a unique space experiment. The experiment was conducted over the last ten months in low Earth orbit. It was designed to test a quicker and more effective method to procure and analyse critical space data directly on their orbiting satellites using cloud.

Equipping AWS Edge with the required capabilities onboard an orbiting satellite enables customers to automatically analyse huge quantity of raw satellite data in orbit and only downlink the required or the most useful images for storing and further analysis. This in turn also helps in lowering the costs and facilitates timely and effective decisions.

“Using AWS software to perform real-time data analysis onboard an orbiting satellite, and delivering that analysis directly to decision makers via the cloud, is a definite shift in existing approaches to space data management. It also helps push the boundaries of what we believe is possible for satellite operations,” said Max Peterson, AWS vice president, worldwide public sector.

India’s space tech lures the big techs

Speaking of AWS inclination towards investing in India’s space startups, Clint Crosier, Director of AWS Aerospace and Satellite, said, “India is a massive market, and India is already a leader in space launching missions. We want to help the country in managing its space data. Processing space data close to where it is collected can be challenging due to the limited data infrastructure in space, and India can certainly leverage the cloud for its space missions.”

Read: 5 Companies Offering Spacetech Platforms

Last month, Amazon also launched AWS SimSpace Weaver; a fully-managed computer service that helps users build, operate, and run large-scale spatial simulations.

And it is not just Amazon that is gearing up to invest in India’s space ecosystem - tech giants like Microsoft Azure recently launched a software development kit called the 'Azure Orbital Space SDK' to democratise access to space development. 

IBM has partnered with Sierra Space, a leading commercial space company to help the company build a seamless technology platform in space.

However, Google is yet to launch products or services that support space tech companies. It will be interesting to see what Google has in store.