India's Skyroot Aerospace Nears First Private Rocket Launch

Two scientists quit their government jobs in 2018 to chase what seemed like an impossible dream: building India's first private rocket company before the country even allowed private rockets to exist.

Now, Skyroot Aerospace stands on the edge of history. The company's Vikram-1 rocket could launch this summer, marking India's entry into the global commercial space race. Cofounder Pawan Kumar Chandana recently told reporters the test launch is just months away.

The journey started when Chandana worked for India's space agency and watched SpaceX transform the industry. He saw an opportunity for India but knew waiting would mean falling further behind competitors in the United States, China, and Europe. So in 2018, he and fellow scientist Naga Bharath Daka took a massive risk and founded Skyroot in Hyderabad.

The timing couldn't have been more uncertain. India didn't open its space industry to private companies until 2020, two years after they started. Chandana had no guarantees the government would even allow private rockets to fly.

But the gamble is paying off spectacularly. Skyroot recently raised $60 million and reached a valuation of $1.1 billion. The company successfully launched a smaller test rocket in 2022 with minimal funding, proving their technology worked.

The Vikram-1 stands three times taller than that test rocket and uses three stages of solid fuel to carry nearly half a ton of cargo into orbit. The company chose solid fuel because it offered the fastest path to launch and fit India's existing manufacturing strengths. A single powerful engine on the first stage keeps the design simple and speeds up testing.

Chandana admits integrating all the components into one system has been "very, very challenging." He's realistic about the odds too. First launches from private companies almost always fail, he notes, though his team has done everything possible to beat those statistics.

The Ripple Effect: India's government is now fully committed to growing its commercial space industry. Officials want to increase the country's share of the global space economy from 2 percent to 10 percent by 2030. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has challenged the industry to jump from five launches per year to 50 by decade's end.

For that ambitious goal to happen, Skyroot and other Indian startups will need to deliver. The company appears ahead of competitors like Agnikul Cosmos, and the recent funding gives them runway to keep developing new vehicles. India has the engineers, the manufacturing base, and a location near the equator that makes launches more efficient.

What started as two scientists taking an enormous leap of faith could soon become India's ticket to the stars.