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