With Skyroot at the head of the class, India's private space industry seeks to take off

"After decades of controlling all aspects of spaceflight, the Indian government decided in 2020 to open things up to private industry. Essentially, the government said, companies could build their own rockets, obtain permission to launch them, and even use state-operated facilities."

"The Vikram-1 launch vehicle could take flight within the next couple of months, its cofounder and chief executive officer, Pawan Kumar Chandana, told Ars in an interview. And with a recent $60 million fundraising round valuing the firm at $1.1 billion, the company is poised to accelerate its commercial launch efforts."

"Chandana graduated with an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in 2012, and like almost anyone in India interested in space at the time, he went to work for the Indian Space Agency. But six years later, he could see the coming disruption to the space industry and believed that India would soon follow suit."

"Although India lacked a purely commercial space industry, Chandana believed that the rising country had the right ingredients in place. The country had great engineers, a supplier base, government spaceports, and an advantageous location near the equator."

In 2020, India allowed private industry to participate in spaceflight by letting companies build rockets, obtain launch permissions, and use state-operated facilities. The change followed growing commercial space activity in the United States and later China. Six years later, Skyroot Aerospace is approaching the launch pad with its first orbital rocket, with Vikram-1 expected to fly within a couple of months. Skyroot recently raised $60 million at a $1.1 billion valuation, positioning the company to expand commercial launch efforts. Pawan Kumar Chandana, an engineering graduate from IIT, left ISRO after recognizing industry disruption and aiming to increase access to space, citing India’s engineering talent, supplier base, government spaceports, and equatorial launch advantage.

Read at Ars Technica