India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the country’s second spaceport yesterday, as the country ramps up its space ambitions.

The spaceport will be located at Kulasekharapatnam, a coastal village in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district, which has been designed to support smaller rocket launches.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation, the site was chosen because it offers “strategic advantages” for firms wanting to launch from the site, particularly through enhancing payload capability with its direct southward launch trajectory for small launch vehicles.

While the spaceport is not yet ready for private launches, at the inauguration event, a Rohini Sounding Rocket ‘RH-200’ was launched from a mobile launchpad and reached a peak altitude of 75km that was tracked by two on-site radars.

India has demonstrated significant space ambitions in recent years including undertaking ambitious exploration missions, including the Chandrayaan programme and Mars Orbiter...