After Skyroot, more pvt firms aim to take commercial dreams to sky

Hyderabad/Bangalore: India’s private space industry is set to accelerate its activity after Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace created history by reaching orbit with Vikram-1 on its maiden mission, a feat no private launch company globally has matched.SpaceX, now the world’s dominant commercial launch provider, reached orbit after three failed attempts.

Skyroot’s success has turned attention to Indian spacetech startups building rockets, including reusable ones, satellites, payloads, propulsion systems and space-data businesses as they prepare to shift from demonstrations to commercial missions.Skyroot is gearing up for at least one more Vikram-1 test mission by the end of this year and hopes to be ready with a 1,000kg payload capacity rocket -- Vikram-2 -- for launch by the end of next year, Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder, Skyroot Aerospace, told TOI a day after the successful Mission Aagaman.

The ultimate goal is to reach a cadence of producing one rocket per month.Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos too is planning Mission 02 within a year, carrying paying customer satellites and attempting to land the rocket’s lower stage on a sea barge. Co-founder Srinath Ravichandran said Agnikul also wants to keep the upper stage in orbit as a satellite platform.“If it feels like a satellite and functions like a satellite, you may as well make it a satellite,” he said.

Agnikul plans Missions 02, 03 and 04 within four to five months of one another, all with paying payloads. On reusability, Ravichandran said, “A typical rocket has one brain. A reusable rocket has two brains.”Bengaluru-based EtherealX expects to complete qualification tests for its Pegasus upper-stage engine and Stallion booster engine by year-end.

Co-founder Manu Nair said reusability was part of the vehicle design from the start. “It is the same base vehicle,” he said. “No one can replicate SpaceX’s model outright,” Nair added. “Our default posture, and where the economics work best for us, is full reusability.”Satellite companies are also preparing for more frequent launches.

GalaxEye, which launched its first satellite in May before the mission was disrupted by a solar storm, said the development could influence future launch choices.It is developing Opto-SAR satellites, combining optical imaging and synthetic aperture radar on the same spacecraft. “Our idea is now to put up two satellites in two years.

These would again be Opto-SAR satellites, to kind of perfect it up there,” said co-founder Pranit Mehta. The next spacecraft may be heavier than the earlier 190kg satellite. “It will definitely not be a repeat of what went. It will certainly be better,” he said.Dhruva Space co-founder Sanjay Nekkanti said more Indian launch options would help satellite companies compete globally.

“More launches would mean that we would be able to capture more market opportunities, both within India and outside India,” he said.Dhruva is working on nano-, micro- and CubeSat missions, with launches expected from the last quarter of this year and early next year. Its next mission will be a 50kg nanosatellite carrying multiple customer payloads.

Nekkanti said, “Our cadence is to produce one satellite every month starting next year. For CubeSats, we can produce almost one every week.” Dhruva has 22 satellites on its 24-month manifest.TakeMe2Space founder Ronak Kumar Samantray said Skyroot’s success could reduce dependence on foreign launch providers.

“The fact that India now has a private rocket really unlocks a lot of opportunities — for defence and for the private sector,” he said.TakeMe2Space, which is building orbital data centres, will evaluate Skyroot as a first preference for future missions. “As startups, we need business continuity. It is very important that we get a professional reply and a launch cadence,” Samantray said.

The company plans two satellites this year, four next year and 20,000 by 2033.Pixxel expects to have more than 50 satellites under development or deployment over the next year as it moves towards a 100-satellite network. Its next Honeybee series will add short-wave infrared capability. “More importantly, this is about building a far more capable planetary infrastructure,” said Pixxel’s Awais Ahmed.Digantara Industries will begin deploying its next satellites from the coming quarter, targeting 17 satellites by the end of 2027.

Founder and CEO Anirudh Sharma said, “Every satellite going up from here is built for operational use from day one.” The company expects real-time space-surveillance data by year-end and missile-warning services within 12 to 16 months. “Space-based sensors have an unobstructed view,” Sharma said.Avijeet Alagathi, managing partner at Shastra VC, said, “Launch gets us to orbit; payloads and platforms are what will generate revenue and strategic value from being there.”Get the latest City News and Live updates.

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