On Saturday, India’s first space unicorn, Skyroot Aerospace, successfully completed its maiden orbital space mission. India now joins the US and Europe in an exclusive club of regions with an operating private rocket. But this is only the beginning.
How far is India from building a scaled-up private space industry? Mint explains.
Why was Skyroot's mission a big moment?
Hyderabad-based Skyroot became the first private Indian company to launch a rocket into orbit from the country. That is significant because until 2020, India's space sector was almost entirely a government-led activity.
With the sector opened up to private players, India has now joined a select group of countries with companies capable of launching orbital space missions. That capability matters because space is increasingly seen as a strategic frontier for both geopolitical influence and commercial opportunity.
India has set a target of building a $44 billion private space economy within the next six fiscal years. Skyroot's launch marks the first major milestone in that journey.
Where does the rest of the industry stand?
Skyroot's closest domestic rivals are Agnikul Cosmos, incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). Both are developing lightweight rockets that can be manufactured quickly and launch small satellites, with HAL commercializing the small launch vehicle originally developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). Both are expected to have operational rockets within the next two fiscals.
Beyond launch vehicles, Bengaluru-based startups Digantara and GalaxEye have shown early promise by carrying out trial launches of their proprietary imaging satellites. Digantra has also secured small contracts from the defence ministry and. Together with Skyroot, these companies are among India's most closely watched space startups.
Which countries will India compete with?
The US remains the world's largest space economy. Elon Musk's SpaceX, valued at $1.58 trillion as of Tuesday, is the world's biggest space company. Other major private players include Rocket Lab, Firefly Aerospace, Relativity Space, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
In Europe, Airbus-backed French company ArianeGroup and Germany's Isar Aerospace are building private launch capabilities. In contrast, the space sectors in countries such as China and Japan remain largely state-led.
What are the biggest challenges?
Access to capital remains one of the industry's biggest hurdles, and India is no exception.
Skyroot, for instance, has completed a suborbital test flight and an orbital commercial mission after raising about $160 million to date. By comparison, Germany's Isar Aerospace—founded around the same time as Skyroot—has raised more than $580 million in its last four funding rounds alone despite not yet completing an orbital launch.
Another constraint is talent. India has a limited pool of space engineers, creating a key bottleneck as the industry scales.
When will India's private space industry come of age?
The sector will begin to look mature once India has private imaging satellite operators, domestic satellite manufacturers, and at least two private rocket companies carrying out regular commercial launches for customers worldwide.
Experts say New Delhi will need to play the role of an anchor customer for private space companies, much as Nasa did in nurturing the US commercial space industry.
With regular commercial launches still at least two years away, India may need another five years before its private space ecosystem can be considered mature.