Skyroot Aerospace eyes commercial rocket launches from early 2027

Following Vikram-1's maiden orbital launch in July, Skyroot plans to begin commercial operations in early 2027 and scale up to one rocket launch a month by the end of next year

Hyderabad-based space-tech startup Skyroot Aerospace is preparing to begin full-fledged commercial launch operations in the first quarter of calendar year 2027, as it looks to tap growing global demand for dedicated satellite launch services, according to co-founder Naga Bharath Daka.

 

Speaking with Business Standard, Daka said, “The whole full-fledged commercial launches will get started from the third launch onwards. We intend to do one launch a month cadence by the end of next year, and want to improve the cadence even further. So, we see there will be a good enough market for two launches a month cadence in the long run.”

 

 

The commercialisation push follows the successful maiden orbital launch of Vikram-1 in July this year. Skyroot is targeting its second launch towards the end of this calendar year. The second flight will carry the same vehicle configuration, with improvements based on data gathered during the maiden mission.

 

"The first two launches are the demonstration launches. Traditionally, these are planned because you anticipate achieving success only in the second or third launch. But now that we have achieved success in the first launch, we have made a lot of improvements," Daka said.

 

Daka said the maiden flight had provided the company with valuable end-to-end data, helping it identify areas where the rocket's reliability could be improved. These include modifications to the stage separation mechanism to minimise differential rates during separation.

 

With the initial flight programme progressing, Skyroot is increasingly looking towards international customers. The company has announced an agreement with US-based customer Reflex Orbital for two launches and another agreement with HEX20 for three launches. It is also seeing interest from both domestic and international markets, including the United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, Daka said.

 

The company believes the global satellite launch market is entering a period of heightened demand, with satellite operators looking to secure launch capacity amid uncertainty over the future availability of established launch providers. Daka pointed to SpaceX's Falcon 9, saying the company had stopped taking launch bookings beyond 2028, adding to concerns among satellite operators about securing access to launch services.

 

"The entire space satellite operator industry is in a panic to secure the launches," he said, adding that Skyroot had become operational at an opportune time.

 

Skyroot estimates the market for small dedicated launch vehicles at $1-2 billion, which will be shared among players in the segment. The company hopes to secure a meaningful share by establishing itself among the top four or five players globally. "Market is not the bottleneck we are trying to solve. Execution is a challenge for us now. It's not a market challenge," Daka said.

 

While the company expects to compete on cost over time, Daka said reliability would remain the key consideration for customers during the initial launches. Skyroot is essentially looking to price its launches competitively as it builds its track record.

 

On the financial front, Skyroot had raised around $150-160 million by the time of its maiden launch, of which nearly half remained unspent, Daka said. The company expects launch revenues to gather pace in the financial year 2027, with further scaling thereafter, but did not disclose revenue projections.