Ajey Lele

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s article, ‘China Destroys the Myth of Asian Space Race’ has been published by Society for Study of Peace and Conflict (SSPC), on January 06, 2022.

The article analyses China’s stellar performance in the space domain despite the ongoing pandemic.

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• Published: 6 January, 2022

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s article ‘Iran’s satellite launch and JCPOA’ has been published in Financial Express on January 04, 2022.

On one hand, they (Iran) are arguing for the necessity of removing the US sanctions, which is harming their economy greatly, while on the other hand, they are undertaking missions like launching satellites and raising political temperatures, unnecessarily (or by design), says Gp. Capt. Lele.

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• Published: 4 January, 2022

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s article ‘Military Satellites: India needs to FastTrack’ has been published in Financial Express on November 26, 2021.

ISRO could manage only two rocket launches for putting satellites into orbit during 2021 and no more launches are expected during this year. There is an urgent need for ISRO to find a way out of the present crisis and resume launching at the earliest. Unfortunately, amongst the important space players, it is only ISRO, which has suffered maximum owing to the present health crisis and automatically that has impacted India’s strategic space programme, says Gp. Capt. Lele.

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• Published: 26 November, 2021

Senior Fellow, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s article ‘Russia’s irresponsible ASAT Test’ has been published in Financial Express on November 26, 2021.

It has been reported that Russia has conducted an anti-satellite test (ASAT) on Nov 15, 2021. The test is known to have generated around 1500 pieces of detectable (trackable) debris in low earth orbit and in addition hundreds of thousands of very small pieces of space debris. The test has come as an unpleasant surprise and has raised much concern about space security, says Gp. Capt. Lele.

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• Published: 16 November, 2021

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s article ‘China and US: Concerns and Interests in Hypersonic Domain’ has been published by the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict (SSPC), on October 21, 2021.

In recent times, it has been observed that the US is not losing any opportunity to highlight the China threat. This is not to say that the China threat is not real. Definitely, there are many concerns about China’s strategic intentions. But at the same time, it is also important to note that the projection (and at times ‘hype’) of such threats only helps the global defence industries to proposer!, says Gp. Capt Lele.

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• Published: 21 October, 2021

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s Commentary ‘The Indian Space Association seeks to broaden commercial interests’ was published in ‘The Space Review’ on October 18, 2021.

India has the third-highest number of billionaires in the world after the US and China. So far, there’s been very limited interest by this community in the business of space. Agencies like ISpA should not restrict themselves to coordinate between existing investors but should also ensure that new investors join the field. If India has to grow big, then they require major industrial houses to enter the business of space who can undertake sustained investments without worrying much about profits for at least the first few years, says Gp. Capt. Lele.

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• Published: 18 October, 2021

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s article ‘India needs to avoid Moon Trap’ has been published in Financial Express on October, 11, 2021.

Presently, there is no dying need for India to join any multilateral mega project like Artemis Accords. First, there is a necessity to have clarity on issues like ownership of Space Resources, before India joins any global Moon bandwagon. Today, many of India’s own space projects have been delayed owing Covid-19 crisis and there is a need to complete them first. It is important to keep focus on priorities rather than unnecessarily getting into any Moon Trap, says Gp. Capt.Lele.

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• Published: 11 October, 2021

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele's article 'ISRO's Cryogenic Conundrum' has been published in The Space Review, on August 16, 2021.

India is just nowhere near to the capabilities of NASA, ESA, Russia, and China and even that of companies like SpaceX. ISRO needs to prioritize its agenda, says Gp. Capt. Lele.

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• Published: 16 August, 2021

Senior Fellow Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s article ‘Medical aspects of Space Tourism’ has been published in Financial Express on July 30, 2021.

It is expected that the type of space tourism, which Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are offering in near future, would make space accessible to the general (rich) public. Now is the time to formulate medical guidelines even for this type of travel. The people who are allowed to travel should be in good health and should not be suffering from heart and blood pressure related complications, says Gp. Capt. Lele.

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• Published: 30 July, 2021

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s article ‘Future of civil aviation sector: The supersonic flying’ has been published in Financial Express on July 20, 2021.

For modern-day supersonic commercial platforms, the business model should be different from the yesteryear Concorde model, says Gp. Capt Lele.

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• Published: 20 July, 2021