Antrix breaks silence, 'wishes well' for Team Indus

BENGALURU: The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) commercial arm, whose launch services agreement with Team Indus had abruptly ended, broke the silence on Wednesday and “wished well” for the private player.
Team Indus is India’s only entry in the Google Lunar XPRIZE, a competition requiring private teams to soft-land on the Moon, move 500 metres and send images back to earth. News broke on January 9 that the firm had failed to get a launch slot with Isro, which has since caused a setback for the team.
“Antrix and TeamIndus are mutually terminating the launch services agreement signed in 2016. Antrix remains committed to encouraging and promoting private enterprise in space and Team Indus will continue with its goal of building a world-class private enterprise,” Antrix CMD Rakesh Sasibhushan said on Wednesday.
Team Indus had tied up with Isro for a launch on the space agency's workshorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the reason for the termination, sources had told TOI, was that the team could not get the required funds.
Team Indus payload was only to piggyback on a bigger launch mission (something Isro could have offered for free), but the Google Lunar XPRIZE mandates that competitors must launch commercially, by raising funds from investors and not use the help of governments. Any government could only provide 5% financial support.
While Rakesh refused to comment on the financial aspect, their was no official statement from Team Indus either. “Team Indus thanks Antrix for its assistance and looks forward to collaborating with us in the future to take India higher and further into space. Antrix takes this opportunity to with TeamIndus all success in its future endeavours,” Rakesh said.
The start-up had competed with tens of firms, several of which were funded by billionaires and got assistance from NASA and yet qualified for the shortlist. It even has more than one former Isro scientists/engineers on its team, and was hoping for a smooth run, with even Prime Minister Narendra Modi having praised their efforts.