France's President Emmanuel Macron listens to French astronaut Sophie Adenot during a live video connection from the International Space Station (ISS) at the International Space Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris on September 10, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Aurelien Morissard
Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised the need for countries to explore, innovate, and protect space together while delivering a speech through video-conferencing on the second day of the International Space Summit in Paris. He invited France and the world to be co-travellers in India’s next space frontier. “Let the space summit in Paris send a clear message: we will explore together, innovate together, and protect space together, for all humanity, and for generations to come.”The Prime Minister said that while orbits have become more crowded, technologies more powerful, and with more actors in the space domain, the focus should be on co-operation over confrontation, sustainability over short-term gain, and inclusion over exclusion.“We support a safe, secure, peaceful, and sustainable space domain anchored in international law, dialogue, and multilateral co-operation,” he said.Mr. Modi highlighted the cost-effective missions of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its capabilities to serve farmers and fishermen, weather forecasting, disaster management, and navigation.“More than 430 satellites from 34 countries have travelled to space aboard Indian rockets. ISRO’s technologies and partnerships serve not only India, but the wider world,” he said.He cited the Chandrayan-3 and Aditya-L1 missions, and the visit of an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2025.“Looking ahead, we aim to establish an Indian space station by 2035, and send an Indian to the Moon by 2040. In all these efforts, our guiding principle has been clear: the benefits must reach all humanity. Alongside ISRO, India’s private space sector is also surging in a big way,” he said.Indian space start-ups sign agreementsDuring the summit, RIDE!, a Paris-based launch services company, signed an agreement to launch two new satellites on behalf of TakeMeToSpace, an Indian space tech company, which is building orbital data centres.French company Safran Space signed several contracts with Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space.“Worth more than €5 million, these contracts will supply several critical Safran Space technologies — communication systems, inertial navigation units, optical payloads, and ground stations — intended for India’s future SBS-III space-surveillance constellation, which envisages deploying 52 satellites between 2027 and 2030,” the organisers stated.France’s U-Space and AXISCADES from India signed a commercial cooperation agreement to explore the Indian microsatellite market, and address growing local needs, both commercial and institutional.(This reporter is in Paris at the invitation of France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs to cover the International Space Summit). Published - September 10, 2026 04:56 pm IST
