Space Lab CoE – Part I

What is a Space Lab? What it takes to build a Satellite Engineering Centre of Excellence — and why the timing matters.

IN-SPACe has issued a Request for Proposal to establish "Antariksh Prayogshala" — dedicated space laboratories — at up to seven academic institutions across India. The scheme funds up to 75% of the project cost, capped at ₹5 crore per institution, with selection phased zone-wise for regional balance. It is, as far as we can tell, a first-of-its-kind initiative: government money specifically earmarked for hands-on satellite engineering capability inside universities.

The intent is clear. India's space economy is growing faster than the workforce pipeline that feeds it. ISRO's commercial arm has a full manifest. Private launch and satellite companies are hiring. And most engineering graduates arrive with theory but without the one thing employers actually screen for: experience building, testing, and operating real hardware under real constraints.

What a Satellite Engineering Centre of Excellence Needs to Do

A satellite touches almost every branch of engineering simultaneously — electronics, mechanical design, embedded software, communications, control systems, thermal management. That's what makes it such an effective teaching platform and also what makes it difficult to set up properly. A satellite CoE that works isn't a single lab with a few kits. It's a facility that replicates the full lifecycle of a professional space mission: requirements, design, build, integration, test, and operations.

The CubeSat standard is what makes this feasible at university scale. A standardised form factor has brought the cost and complexity of a real mission within reach of a single department's budget. Students aren't building toy satellites — they're working with hardware that flies, to specifications that matter.

What the Progression Looks Like

The most effective university space labs we've seen — and the model we use when institutions ask us to design one — follow a crawl-walk-run structure:

Fundamentals first. Students learn satellite concepts, embedded programming, and mission design through hands-on kits before they touch flight hardware. A short, intensive programme capped by a practical exercise (a drone-drop "mission", for instance) builds intuition before complexity. Engineering model build. Students assemble and programme a complete satellite engineering model using real subsystems — on-board computer, electrical power system, ADCS sensors and actuators such as reaction wheels, radios, a payload, etc. Professional test infrastructure. Designs get validated on the same equipment a mission uses: ADCS hardware-in-the-loop testbeds, thermal-vacuum chambers, vibration shakers, cleanrooms. Ground segment and operations. A ground station and mission control centre lets students run telemetry, commanding, and mission planning. This is where the software engineering and data side of a mission comes alive.

Flight. The end state is the institution's own CubeSat mission. Not every university will get there in year one, but the pathway should be designed so that flight is always the direction of travel.

An institution can start with fundamentals and an engineering model kit, then add test infrastructure, ground segment, and flight capability as research output, confidence, and budget grow. Faculty get certified to run the lab independently, so the institution owns the capability long-term, not just the equipment.

What an Institution Gets From This

Beyond the obvious — graduates who can do the job — a working Satellite CoE changes what a university can offer:

Graduates with hands-on satellite build, test, and operations experience are directly employable in the space, defence, and deep-tech sectors. Flight-representative hardware and real telemetry give faculty a basis for publishable research, patents, and sponsored projects. A commissioned CoE positions the institution for national and international student-satellite competitions. And a flown CubeSat is a publicly visible marker of engineering capability — useful for accreditation, rankings, and recruitment in ways that another lecture hall never will be.

Students also learn something harder to quantify: how to work in interdisciplinary teams, how to make engineering trade-offs under constraints, and how to deliver a product where failure has consequences. These are the skills that produce founders, not just employees. Next up we have Part II, where we dive deeper into the specifics of the satellite centre CoE.

How TakeMe2Space Helps

We design and deliver Satellite Engineering Centres of Excellence. The subsystems, software, and procedures students train on are the same ones we fly on our own missions — not simplified classroom substitutes. Our educational CubeSat kit, Manha, is the entry point; our flight-proven satellite subsystems and mission control platform are the destination.

We've designed Space Labs for institutions across India and Europe, and the model is built to travel: same curriculum, same hardware, and same training, regardless of where the lab is deployed.

If your institution is exploring this — whether in response to the IN-SPACe RFP or independently — find us at tm2.space or write to us at info@tm2.space.