“We started with a leap of faith.”
That’s what Naga Bharath Daka tells when asked about Skyroot Aerospace, the Indian space-tech start-up he co-founded with a partner in 2018.
Motivated by the promise give by the space sector, he and associate engineer Pawan Chandana left their secure government jobs at the ISRO- the country’s government-run space agency – to set up Skyroot, that designs and make rocket components to send satellites into space.
This week, Skyroot is trying to form a history by launching India’s first privately developed rocket from ISRO’s Sriharikota space centre in east of India.
India’s funding for space research is just a fraction of what the other countries like the US and the China spend.
It holds only around 2% of the global space market share, but experts hope the under way reforms can help improve the sector further.
India welcomed the space sector for private firms in 2020 and granted them right to build rockets and satellites. They have also been permitted to use ISRO’s launching provisions.