Skyroot's Vikram-S rocket launch creating space for private sector

The launch of a sounding rocket by Skyroot marks the start of a surge in start-ups entering a sector that was opened up only in June 2020

On November 21, 1963, India’s space journey took off with the launch of a US-made sounding rocket called Nike Apache from Thumba in Kerala.

“Gee whiz wonderful rocket shot.” This was the telegram that Vikram Sarabhai, legendary Indian physicist and pioneer of space research in India, sent home afterwards. Within four years on November 20, 1967, the country launched the first rocket developed by the state-owned Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) called Rohini-75.

It was these baby steps that ISRO took in the 1960s that the Indian private sector repeated last week after nearly six decades with the launch of the Vikram-S (named in memory of Sarabhai) by Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace.

“This is a sounding rocket. The importance of this is that for the first time the private sector is achieving such a feat, after the sector was opened up,” said M C Dathan, scientific advisor to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and a former director of ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. A sounding rocket is a research rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight.

The Vikram-S launch is the first such launch by the private sector after India opened its space sector in June 2020. It was following this that the government had set up the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), as a centre to coordinate between private space firms and ISRO.

Until recently, the roles of private companies were restricted mainly to supplying components and sub-systems, one key reason the country did not see the rise of companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the US.

Skyroot Aerospace is an Indian space-tech start-up founded by Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Chandana, two former ISRO scientists and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni, in 2018. One of the most funded start-ups in the space sector in India, Skyroot has raised around $68 million so far — including $17 million raised through a seed round, Series A and a bridge round, and $51 million in a Series B round led by Singapore sovereign investor GIC in September this year.

The current launch, called Mission Prarambh, has been compared with SpaceX, which launched the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth in 2008. Close to a 100 people were involved in the making of Vikram S. The company said it expects to enter the orbital market with the Vikram I launch vehicle next year.

With the launch from Sriharikota, the Vikram -S rocket validated 80 per cent of the technologies that will be used in the Vikram-1 orbital vehicle that is planned for launch next year. Other than the launch support, the company has undertaken several processes within the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) test facilities to enable launch, including the testing of various flight hardware.

The Vikram-S rocket was a single-stage solid fuelled, sub-orbital rocket that took about two years to develop, and was built using advanced technologies including carbon composite structures and 3D-printed components.

“The Vikram-S rocket’s success will validate most of the technologies in the ‘Vikram’ series of space launch vehicles planned by Skyroot for the coming years. India’s space economy is set to grow the fastest by 2025 at a compound annual growth rate of 13 per cent, which will be spurred by growing private participation, the adoption of the latest technology and low cost of launch services. This launch is a major landmark for this growth to take place in the coming years,” said A K Bhatt, director general, Indian Space Association (ISA).

According to a report by EY and ISA, the global space economy is expected to touch $600 billion by 2025, from around $447 billion now. Of that, India accounted for only 2.6 per cent of the global space economy amounting to $9.6 billion. With the entry of more start-ups, this contribution is expected to touch $13 billion by 2025. Based on the latest available data, the country has over 100 space start-ups, of which 47 were set up in 2021, 21 in 2020 and 11 in 2019. As of last year, there are 368 space-tech companies in India, as compared to 5,582 in the US and 615 in the UK.

“The launch opens the door for many of our private players. It proves that apart from ISRO, there is capability in the private sector in the space domain, that too in the most complex part, which is developing rockets. They are dealing with 500 kg or so, which they are planning to do in Vikram 1. It is a niche market, where small players want a particular launch to be done at a particular orbit,” Bhatt added.

Over the years, India has become a leader in third-party launch services. India boasts one of the highest launch success rates in the world for the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Between 2014 and 2019, ISRO generated more than $167.5 million revenue by the launch of satellites from 26 countries, said the EY report.

By the end of April 2022, there were around 5,465 man-made satellites on Earth’s orbit, of which 63 per cent were from the US, 10 per cent from China, 3 per cent from Russia and the remaining from other countries. Out of this, 86 per cent circle on a lower Earth orbit, followed by 10 per cent geosynchronous, 3 per cent medium Earth orbit and 1 per cent elliptical. The business potential of a launch vehicle can be gauged by looking at the fact that more than 50,000 satellites are likely to be launched in the next 10 years, the majority of which will be in the lower orbit that potentially bulks up business for companies such as Skyroot.

As Bhatt pointed out, “That is the reason why we are seeing 104 start-ups in India and they are getting good funding from investors. The Skyroot launch is going to pave the way for the rise of the sector.”