The story so far: The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) on September 17, 2026, released a document titled Norms, Guidelines and Procedures for implementation of the Indian Space Policy 2023 in respect of authorisation for establishment and operation of hosted-payloads.
These NGEs over the last few years have been developing and deploying payloads for Earth observation, space science, communications, technology demonstration and other space-based applications. The hosted-payloads may be owned by Indian entities and hosted on non-Indian host space-objects, Indian payloads or non-Indian entities housed on Indian host space-objects, or even payloads which are hosted on the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) or similar platforms. IN-SPACe has mandated that any hosted-payload owned by an Indian entity and which is being hosted on an Indian or non-Indian satellite will require authorisation from it. The nodal agency also specifies that it has to submit an application seeking authorisation for a single payload or multiple payloads which can be hosted on a satellite or constellation of satellites. It also specifies that the applicant (Indian entities), at the time of application submission to IN-SPACe, shall provide the information on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) filing under which the host space-object and hosted-payloads shall operate. However, the host entity must provide all information about the hosted-payloads. It further states that the objectives and operations of hosted-payloads must comply with applicable international laws, treaties, agreements, guidelines and standards, including the Outer Space Treaty, Liability Convention and Registration Convention, along with other relevant international obligations.
IN-SPACe, which is the single-window agency for all space sector activities of private entities in the country, has released this document due to the increasing number of private participants, which it refers to as Non-Government Indian Entities (NGEs).
IN-SPACe says the guidelines will help the Indian companies to access space-based infrastructure through hosted-payload opportunities, while ensuring compliance with applicable technical, safety, security, spectrum, orbital and other regulatory requirements. The document says that non-Indian entities are exempt from seeking authorisation from IN-SPACe to host their payloads on Indian space-objects. Instead, IN-SPACe says that it does not require authorisation for non-Indian-hosted-payload owners, provided that they follow relevant laws and regulations.
