An Indian Aerospace company "Skyroot Aerospace" like Space X

Image Source: Skyroot Aerospace

           We are always excited about American private aerospace company Space-X founded by Elon Musk on 6 May 2002, No dought SpaceX has achieved many milestones and contributed its work towards space technology.

Indian private Aerospace company is quite late but not behind in the competition. 

It all started from, In 2018 when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the decision of opening up the space sector for private participation. This Inspired two young engineers from ISRO.

About Skyroot Aerospace

Skyroot Aerospace started in Jun 2018 headquarter in Hyderabad, founded by two young engineers Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka both previously worked with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). currently, Pawan Kumar Chandana is serving as CEO and Naga Bharath Daka as COO.

Spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace has become the first Indian private company to build an indigenous rocket engine and successfully tested and fired an upper-stage rocket engine. It has received support from the Indian Government IN-SPACe (Indian Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre), the new entity of the Department of Space. 

VIKRAM SERIES

Image Source: Skyroot Aerospace

Skyroot Aerospace has launched VIKRAM SERIES, three types of launch vehicles Vikram I, II and III, and named after Indian astronomer Vikram Sarabhai, the founder of ISRO. The first of these rockets would be able to launch satellites weighing 250-700 kg into the earth’s lower orbit.

Many Veterans from ISRO and DRDO have contributed to Skyroot and still actively participating in current developments. and Former founder and CEO of Flipkart Mukesh Bansal is BOD and Advisor. 

Rocket engine Raman Test Fire

Skyroot Aerospace successfully test-fire Vikram-1 launch vehicle's upper stage rocket engine ‘Raman’ on 30th July 2020. It has developed a thrust of 3.4KN 

The engine with fully 3D printed Injector is capable of multiple restarts which enables our Vikram-1 launch vehicle to insert satellites into multiple orbits in a single mission.

As per Skyroot, Vikram-I will be launched into Space by December 2021 under the guidance of ISRO.

Comparison of Skyroot with SpaceX

It's not justified comparing a two years old startup with 18 years old company.

Just for comparison, Skyrrot is planning to launch the rocket by next year and the other hand SpaceX has is planning to send astronauts on Mars and space shuttle that would transport astronauts into space

But never forget a story, when Americans denied India to operate their cray supercomputer because of Pokhran test, India has developed indigenous supercomputer PARAM 8000 built from scratch which was not only far cheaper than American supercomputer also won the second prize in a competition "Zurich Super-computing Show" Later India become the main exporter of Supercomputer because of its benchmark and low cost. 

I will cover PARAM story in another artilce.