Gearing for flight

India’s maiden human spaceflight — which will carry three crew members to low earth orbit — has been further delayed due to COVID-19 impact.

Thursday February 18, 2021 , 4 min Read

Good morning!

The much-awaited Gaganyaan mission is not likely to be launched before 2023.

India’s maiden human spaceflight — which will carry three crew members to low earth orbit — has been further delayed due to COVID-19 impact.

While Gaganyaan’s unmanned missions were initially slated for launch in December 2020 and July 2021, its first manned mission was scheduled for December 2021.

However, due to the pandemic, these plans had to change. Now, the unmanned missions are planned for December 2021, and sometime in 2022-23, while the human space flight demonstration will follow soon after.

ISRO, spacetech, webinar — *Representational Image. [ Image Credit: Shutterstock]*

Indian Spacetechsector is seeing an increase in innovations and reforms as the government opened it up to private players, signing partnering with startups working in this space.

So far, companies including Chennai-based AgnikulCosmos, Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace, and Benagluru-based Pixxelhave already inked partnerships with the Department of Space (DoS).

Interestingly, only three countries have managed to conduct human spaceflight missions — the US, Russia, and China.

The Interview

In an increasingly digital world, neobanking has created waves in the fintech sector. Five years after exiting TaxiForSure.com, Founder Raghunandan G made his comeback with global neobank Zolve. Within just two months of starting up, Zolve recently raised $15 million in a seed round led by Accel Partners and Lightspeed Ventures. The round marked the first investment by Founder Collective in an Indian startup.

Editor’s Pick: 100x Entrepreneur Podcast

Geetha Manjunath, Founder of Bengaluru-based healthtech startup Niramai, says it is important for people to work and enjoy it, and to do it because “one loves it, and not for the end results.” Quoting the idea from the Bhagavad Gita, she says, enjoying the job at hand — be it entrepreneurship, a job, or an exam — and achieving a bigger goal beyond their own selves will help people get through the challenges in their way. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Kochi startup Incoff helps businesses connect with coworking spaces

The COVID-19 pandemic may have slowed down the growth of coworking spaces, but things are bound to get back on track as things open up. While there are several notable players offering affordable and comfortable coworking spaces across India, Kochi-based Incoff Workspace Solutions has a unique way of disrupting the segment. Founded in 2019 by Kishore G Nair and Indrajith NS, Incoff offers a flexible workspace access platform that connects coworking spaces and clients. Read more.

Incoff Snapshot — *Illustration: YS Design*

News & Updates

Amazon's outgoing CEO Jeff Bezos is back to being the world's richest person after Tesla Founder Elon Musk lost $4.6 billion of this net worth after Tesla shares fell 2.4 percent.

Homegrown short video platform Chingari has entered social commerce that allows users to shop via videos on the app. Every video uploaded on the Chingari app will be parsed to detect objects and matched with a live shopping catalogue on Amazon.in.

Tech giants IBM and Tech Mahindra said they are deepening their collaboration in areas like 5G, hybrid cloud, automation, and cybersecurity. The partnership will also see co-creation and co-innovation through innovation labs and Centres of Excellence.

Tata Communications has partnered with Google Cloud to drive cloud adoption and transform Indian businesses. The partnership will enable organisations to deploy and access Google Cloud services through Tata Communications' IZO managed cloud.

The launch of Gaganyaan, India's maiden human spaceflight, has been further delayed due to COVID-19 impact. The project is aimed at demonstrating human space flight capability to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and safely recovering the crew after the mission.