Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in the context of Interplanetary spaceflight

SPOT (French: Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre, lit. "Satellite for observation of Earth") is a commercial high-resolution optical Earth observation satellite system operating from space. It is run by Spot Image, based in Toulouse, France. It was initiated by the CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales – the French space agency) in the 1970s and was developed in association with the SSTC (Belgian scientific, technical and cultural services) and the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB). It has been designed to improve the knowledge and management of the Earth by exploring the Earth's resources, detecting and forecasting phenomena involving climatology and oceanography, and monitoring human activities and natural phenomena. The SPOT system includes a series of satellites and ground control resources for satellite control and programming, image production, and distribution. Earlier satellites were launched using the European Space Agency's Ariane 2, 3, and 4 rockets, while SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 were launched by the Indian PSLV.

India's Space Industry is predominantly driven by its national space agency ISRO. The industry includes over 500 private suppliers and other various bodies of the Department of Space (DoS) in all commercial, research and arbitrary regards. There are relatively few independent private agencies, though they have been gaining an increased role since the start of the 21st century. In 2023, the space industry of India accounted for $9 billion or 2%-3% of the global space industry and employed more than 45,000 people.

In 2021, the Government of India launched the Indian Space Association (ISpA) to open the Indian space industry to private sectors and start-ups. Several private companies like Larsen & Toubro, Nelco (Tata Group), OneWeb, MapmyIndia, Walchandnagar Industries are founding members of this organisation. Lieutenant General Anil Kumar Bhatt was appointed as the Director General of ISpA.

Aditya-L1 (Sanskrit: Āditya IPA: [aːd̪it̪jɐ] 'Sun', L1 'Lagrange Point 1') is a coronagraphy spacecraft for studying the solar atmosphere, designed and developed by ISRO and various other Indian Space Research Institutes. It is orbiting at about 1.5 million km from Earth in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) between the Earth and the Sun, where it will study the solar atmosphere, solar magnetic storms, and their impact on the environment around the Earth.

It is the first Indian mission dedicated to observe the Sun. Nigar Shaji is the project's director. Aditya-L1 was launched aboard the PSLV C57 at 11:50 IST on 2 September 2023. It successfully achieved its intended orbit nearly an hour later, and separated from its fourth stage at 12:57 IST. It was inserted at the L1 point on 6 January 2024, at 4:17 pm IST.