AEROSPACE INDUSTRY
UPDATE
March 2019
McIlvaine Company
Table of Contents
India
Sets Up First Space Incubation Center
India
Sets Up First Space Incubation
Center
India’s space agency, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched its
first space technology incubation center in a remote north-eastern state of
Tripura, for developing next generation technologies needed by the space sector.
The ISRO Space Technology Incubation Centre opened at the National Institute of
Technology (NIT) at Agartala, the capital city of Tripura will incubate
start-ups to build applications and products in tandem with the industry and
they would be used in future space missions," Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan said while remotely inaugurating it from Bengaluru.
This incubation center, the first of its kind in India aims at developing
innovative indigenous technologies that could be used in its future projects. At
the same time it would work on significantly cutting down the cost.
The country’s third smallest state of Tripura, with a population of 3.7 million
is a far cry from Bangalore city’s population of 13 million. To get a
perspective, Bangalore is the capital city of the state of Karnataka (Karnataka
state population is 67 million as against Tripura state population of 3.7
million).
The space agency also said it has identified five more locations – Jalandhar,
Bhubaneswar, Nagpur, Trichy and Indore, which are also smaller cities – to
develop five more such incubation centers for a pan-India participation of
academics, start-ups and industry in space research, Sivan pointed out.
“We don’t want to go to places where space research is already going on. ISRO
does not want to concentrate on vertical but horizontal growth of space
research. We want to identify untapped potential from across the country for
space research,” he added.
Each of these incubation center will be set up at a cost of USD 0.3 million (Rs
20 million), and will help the start-ups develop prototypes of components
required for space technology, in partnership with the industry.
The ISRO chief, however, clarified that no start-up has yet been identified for
this initiative.
The consumption of electronics across various sector, including space, will be a
$800 billion market by 2026, but the country has a capacity to locally produce
electronics worth only about $120 billion , according to India Electronics and
Semiconductor Association chairman Anil Kumar Muniswamy.
"With India forced to import over 75% of its electronics requirements, there is
a huge opportunity for Indian industry to expand their businesses, And if one
has to take into account the space technology related market, it will be on a
growth curve because ISRO is looking at sending at least two missions a month
into space," Muniswamy said.
“We believe that now is the right time to build the future ecosystem to nurture
innovation and entrepreneurship in the space technology segment. Also, with the
Make in India initiative gaining momentum, we feel the setting up of space
technology incubation centers in smaller cities will not only benefit the
industry but also help cut down development cost,” he added.
The prototypes developed by the start-ups, which range from electronics items,
to valves, to rocket engine parts, would be tested by ISRO and if successful,
will be absorbed by the space agency for its various missions.
Astro Pak Space Coast Cleanroom
Cost: $7 million
Size: 38,000 sq. ft.
Project team: Loyd Contracting Company, Inc.
Astro Pak’s new Florida facility, located just outside of the Kennedy Space
Center (KSC), has opened its doors for business in July 2018. The newly
renovated facility in Titusville houses an AS9100 and ISO certified contract
precision cleaning cleanroom.
The project marks the completion of the process that began when Astro Pak
acquired Chemko Technical Services in 2016. Astro Pak supported on-site work at
KSC on projects such as the ongoing work at the Mobile Launch Platform (MLP) in
support of NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System (SLS), as well as meeting the
needs for component cleaning at its cleanroom facility.
The Astro Pak facility houses a 15 ft. x 15 ft. tower with a 70 ft. vertical
rise that allows the processing of hoses up to 60 ft. in length. The facility
also houses an ISO 7 cleanroom and an accompanying ISO 6 lab joined by a
spacious shop area with a 2-ton bridge crane. These facilities are further
augmented by large aqueous processing tanks, a pre-clean area with multiple
workstations, ultrasonic units, as well as hydrostatic, hydraulic, and pneumatic
testing capabilities.
Astro Pak provides precision cleaning services back and processing in a
controlled environment, cleanliness verification for particle count, TFS, NVR,
vacuum sealed packaging, cold shock, and pressure testing. The facility can
accommodate industry specifications including KSC-C-123J, CGA G-4.1-2009, ASTM
G-93-03, IEST-STD-CC 1246E, and numerous industry and aerospace cleaning
specifications. The facility is further supported by a state of the art
cleanroom trailer, which allows for on-site support in addition to the in-house
services.
Completion date: July 2018
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