With the successful launch of the Vikram-S rocket in the month of November last year the Aerospace industry, has witnessed a new milestone. The private players who entered the Aerospace technology industry saw a rise in success with this launch. In 2020, India paved the way for private players to enter the Aerospace industry. Previously it was only ISRO (Indian space research organization) that dominated the space programs of India.
According to reports India has had its presence in the space sector since the 1960s, however, it holds only 2% of the market share which is estimated to be about $9.6 billion in 2020. India aims to reach a target of $12.8 billion by the year 2025. Presently India has over 100 startups that are part of the Aerospace sector. Several investors and big players in the Aerospace sector have anticipated that this number is expected to grow in the coming years.
Skyroot Aerospace was founded in 2018 by former ISRO scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka. The company test-fired the first ‘made in India rocket by a private company’ after signing a memorandum with ISRO in 2021. The rocket code-named ‘Vikram-S’ was built confidentially and was launched from SrihariKota, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, and reached a peak of 89.5 km making it the first private company in India to reach space.
Pawan Kumar Chandana co-founder of the Hyderabad-based startup said: “Beyond the symbolic value of being the first, we are happy to be among the early movers in the private space startup ecosystem which has started to demonstrate its potential.” He further added that the “successful launch has confirmed the domain expertise and leadership capabilities of the Indian Space Sector. We now focus on developing our flagship Vikram I Orbital vehicle that we will launch in 2023.”
Another space startup from Bengaluru ‘Dhruva Space’ have successfully developed satellite platforms and subsystems with the support of the government. Founded by Sanjay Srikanth Nekkanti in 2012. He told the media that the “current government has been very forthcoming in bringing about an interesting revolution where private players experience a level playing field in trying to support not just local requirements but also global requirements too.”
