To the Moon (8/24/23)

Good morning. Hope you’re having a great week so far.

Today’s newsletter:
🌙 India’s space stocks
🤝 South Africa x China
📝 The contract report

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India’s Space Stocks Boom

Yesterday’s successful Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing sparked a wave of national pride and enthusiasm across India. The country’s fervor for space has spilled over into its stock market, where its space stocks are surging.

While India hasn’t caught the space pure-play SPAC bug like the US, it has several prominent publicly traded industrial companies that have directly supplied ISRO and Chandrayaan-3.

In the week leading up to the landing, India’s space stocks added $2.5B of market cap, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Yesterday, Chandrayaan-3 supplier stocks continued that trend:

• Centum Electronics supplied 200+ mission-critical Chandrayaan-3 parts and modules—traded up 14.5% yesterday.

• Godrej Aerospace supplied thrusters and engines for the mission—rose 7.3%.

• Paras Defence and Space Technologies built the spacecraft navigation systems—climbed 5.8%.

• MTAR Technologies developed engines, booster pumps, and gas generators—increased 5% yesterday.

• Hindustan Aeronautics manufactured the Vikram lander module—advanced 3.9%.

The uptick in enthusiasm for space equities—although perhaps driven in part by speculation— signals an anticipation of further investment in India’s space economy.

A spacefaring nation: The Chandrayaan-3 mission, with its modest cost of ~$74M, is already inspiring further missions. Post-lunar touch down, space officials discussed ramping up Chandrayaan-4 and -5 missions.

Moved to the private sector: In addition to further public-private Chandrayaan missions, India also aims to support a fully private-sector space economy. Earlier this year, India announced plans to privatize ISRO’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), with 20 interested bidders.

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South Africa Joins China’s Lunar Team

China and South Africa have agreed to partner on space initiatives for the first time.

During a meeting of BRICS nation leaders—a group consisting of Brazil, India, China, and South Africa—Chinese President Xi Jinping signed two agreements with South Africa to collaborate on space-related projects.

According to Chinese state media agency Xinhua News, one of the agreements covered human spaceflight, and the other brought South Africa onto the team for China and Russia’s planned International Lunar Research Station. Few details about the agreements were disclosed.

Two teams form: For decades, Russia and the US have been partners in spaceflight through the ISS. In recent years, though, heightened tensions between the two countries—including through sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine last year—have led to a deepening rift that has left Russia and its resource-starved space program to look for partners elsewhere.

China has partnered with Russia on a number of upcoming projects, including the International Lunar Research Station, a planned lunar base consisting of a space station in lunar orbit, a complex on the lunar surface, and a fleet of robots. The two nations have said that the project is open to all others who would like to join, and have signed on a handful of partners.

The US, on the other hand, has partnered with several nations on Artemis and is making efforts to build international cooperation in lunar exploration through the Artemis Accords. Brazil and India are signatories.

In Other News

• SpaceX is continuing to work through its pesky valve issues.

• Polaris Dawn, a SpaceX private astronaut mission, is delayed to 2024, likely due to the procurement of spacewalk spacesuits.

• Crew-7 completed a full rehearsal of launch day activities ahead of its planned launch tomorrow.

• Rocket Lab’s ($RKLB) flight yesterday included its first reflown Rutherford engine.

• North Korea attempted and failed to launch a spy satellite.

The View from Space

Orbital Sidekick’s first trio of GHOSt satellites has beamed home its first observations from orbit. In this image, the constellation’s hyperspectral sensors tracked plumes of methane as a way of detecting gas pipeline leaks.