Singapore in talks with IN-SPACe to strengthen space partnership

Indian space regulator and promoter IN-SPACe’s counterpart in Singapore, the Office for Space Technology & Industry (OSTIn), is looking to deepen collaboration with India’s space ecosystem.

OSTIn’s executive director, Jonathan Hung, on Monday said the office is in discussions to finalise a partnership with IN-SPACe that goes beyond research and development (R&D) to joint commercialisation pathways, particularly in earth observation applications.

Hung was speaking in Bengaluru during a discussion on leveraging satellite data for national security organised by Synergia Foundation, a research think tank.


“Through various programmes and collaborations, OSTIn hopes to do more work with India, either through our platform or the Earth Observation Initiative (EOI), and solve real-world issues,” the director said during the roundtable.

Singapore launched the EOI earlier this year with 15 partners, including the World Bank and World Economic Forum, to harness satellite data for applications ranging from infrastructure monitoring to food security, climate resilience and disaster response.

So far, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched a total of 19 satellites for Singapore.

“Satellite data is able to do monitoring of oil pipelines, railways, transit vehicles, but you need people who understand these types of large-scale deployment. It’s not so simple, they can just map and see imagery,” Hung said, pointing to the need to build resilience in adjacent sectors.

OSTIn said Singapore has about 70 space-related companies employing 2,000 individuals.

During the roundtable, former chairman of the ISRO, AS Kiran Kumar, said Indian entrepreneurs have an opportunity to build space infrastructure for other countries. “Singapore is primarily looking at how it can deliver what is already available and also bring in more innovative solutions which others are not looking at,” he said.

Kumar added that the availability of data is going to be assured from one source. However, the focus should be on solving specific problems, especially in the Southeast Asia region.