Asian College of Journalism, premier J school in Asia, and SpaceKidz India, a Chennai based space and defence organization, have entered into a strategic collaboration for a student-led content creation for the latter’s flagship lunar mission ShaktiSAT.
A Memorandum of Understanding for the collaboration was signed on Thursday March 20, 2025 by Dr Srimathy Kesan, founder-CEO of SpaceKidz and Dr Nalini Rajan, Dean, Asian College of Journalism.
As per the MoU, ACJ will extend its expertise in multi-media, multi-platform journalism to provide learning opportunities to its student volunteers to create content that would spread awareness and knowledge about space exploration initiatives particularly the ShaktiSAT mission of Space Kidz India.
Space Kidz India will facilitate interaction between ACJ student volunteers and its stakeholders, including students enrolled with ShaktiSAT mission and scientists and other experts associated with the mission. It will also provide technical expertise and guidance on space-related topics.
Describing the collaboration as yet another milestone for ACJ, Dr Nalini Rajan said, “This will provide our students an exposure to space technology, and a hands-on experience of covering a major space mission from designing and construction of the satellite to its launch and beyond. Our students, with technical guidance from SpaceKidz and their experts, will create content in text, video, audio and multimedia formats. This will also help the students to gain greater insight into science writing in general, and explore the emerging area of reporting on space sciences, and space missions.
Dr Srimathy Kesan said, “The partnership will help future journalists to experience real time space missions by collaborating, communicating and connecting and expanding how space is perceived. ACJ students will join us in the journey of about 12,000 school girls in the age group of 8 to 12 from 108 countries, who will be trained and will design and integrate the payload consisting of a satellite, a lunar orbiter and a moon lander. The work on the satellite ShaktiSAT will begin in January 2026, and will be launched by ISRO in September 2026.”
At present women constitute only 12 to 14 per cent of those involved in space sciences and out of that only 2 to 4 per cent are in leadership positions. “We want to tilt this table and that is why we are focusing on the school girls,” Dr Kesan said
About SpaceKidz India: (https://spacekidzindia.in)
Space Kidz India (SKI) is an aerospace and defence organization dedicated to inspiring and empowering students in the fields of space science, technology, and innovation. SKI has launched multiple satellites and scientific experiments, providing young minds with hands-on exposure to space missions. With a strong focus on education, research, and international collaborations, SKI aims to make space exploration more accessible to students and researchers across the globe.
About ShakthiSAT: (https://shakthisat.org)
ShakthiSAT is a first-of-its-kind global space initiative, uniting about 12,000 girl students from 108 countries to design, build, and launch satellite, Orbiter and Lander that will reach the Moon. This mission is supported by ISRO, IN-SPACe, and other prestigious space organizations, making it a significant milestone in global space exploration and women’s empowerment in STEM. The mission is expected to be launched by ISRO from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in September 2026.