NEW DELHI: When the Vikram-S rocket was launched in November, it set a new milestone in India’s space industry – a breakthrough for private players who recently entered a domain that for decades was exclusively state-owned. Who was
The privately built rocket took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota and reached an altitude of 89.5 km, making its owner, Skyroot Aerospace, the first private Indian company to reach outer space.
“Beyond the symbolic value of being first, we are happy to be among the early movers in the private space start-up ecosystem, which has started demonstrating its potential,” said Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder of the Hyderabad-based startup. told Arab News.
India opened the door for private companies in the space industry in 2020 with a regulatory overhaul and the formation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center – a single-window autonomous agency under the government’s Department of Space. Prior to this, the state-owned Indian Space Research Organization was the sole arbiter of the country’s space programmes.
“Our successful launch reaffirms the domain expertise and leadership capabilities of the Indian space sector,” Chandana said. “We now focus on developing our flagship Vikram I orbital vehicle which we will launch in 2023.”
Skyroot Aerospace was founded by Chandana and his partner Bharat Daka in 2018. Both spent years working at ISRO. Chandana specializes in the mechanical aspects of rockets, and Daka Avionics – in aerospace electronics.
Skyroot is one of the many private companies that have come on the scene since the industry opened up. When the Indian Space Association was launched in December 2020, it had just five members, but, the association’s director-general, Lt Gen (retd) Anil Kumar Bhatt, told Arab News, the number has already grown tenfold.
“The ecosystem of private space players is growing in India…many new start-ups are coming up,” he added.
India has been in the global space market since the 1960s, but its current share is only 2 percent, which is estimated to be worth $9.6 billion in 2020. The country aims to reach $12.8 billion by 2025.
There are currently a little over 100 private startups in the Indian space sector and Bhatt estimates that they have raised around $240 million from venture capitalists since 2020.
Bhatt is confident that India’s presence in the global space arena will increase significantly in the near future.
“Competition will make space exploration cheaper. Disruptive technology introduced by private players has reduced the cost of launches by about one-fifth,” Bhatt said. “In 10 years, we expect (the global space market to India’s share) will reach about 10 per cent.”
Dhruva Space, another successful Indian startup from Hyderabad, develops satellite platform structures and subsystems. Its CEO, Sanjay Nekanti, welcomes the government’s support for the space industry.
“The current government has been at the forefront of bringing about an interesting revolution where private players feel an equal opportunity in trying to support not only local needs but also global needs,” he told Arab News.
Dhruva Space launched two radio communication nanosatellites in November and is preparing to launch satellites up to 40 kg this year.
“As India looks forward to the Space Act, we will see tremendous growth in the demand for satellites in the coming years, fueling growth for satellite-enabled services,” Nekanti said.
“The potential for innovative space applications is enormous, especially if established aerospace companies partner with businesses that have not traditionally gone into orbit – for example, pharmaceutical or agricultural companies. Satellites are already a part of everyone’s daily life. They play an important role in the communication of human beings, so the upcoming development will further enhance this role.