ISRO’s Brain Drain: A Cautionary Tale for Ethiopia’s Space Ambitions

As India’s space agency ISRO struggles to retain its top scientists for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission, the crisis offers a stark lesson for emerging spacefaring nations, including Ethiopia. More than 100 scientists have resigned from ISRO in recent months, many from the flagship Gaganyaan programme, raising questions about the sustainability of national prestige projects in the face of a booming private space sector.

The Department of Space (DoS) has tightened resignation rules, withdrawing the authority of ISRO centre directors to approve departures. Now, all resignations from key programmes must be cleared at the highest level. This administrative move, while necessary, masks a deeper problem: