Inside India newsletter: Skyroot rocket puts India alongside U.S., China in private orbital launch

Hello, this is Priyanka Salve, writing to you from Singapore.

Welcome to the latest edition of  "Inside India" — your one-stop destination for stories and developments from the world's fastest-growing large economy.

On Saturday, Indian space-tech startup Skyroot successfully test-launched a low-orbit rocket carrying a payload of 350 kilograms, marking its entry into the global satellite launch market dominated by American and Chinese companies. I caught up with the co-founder of Skyroot to unpack what's next for the country's first space tech unicorn.

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The demand for satellite launches is rising globally, as there are just a handful of rocket companies with the capability to make space deliveries. Naga Bharath Daka, co-founder of Indian space tech startup Skyroot that recently joined the elite space club, is determined to capitalize on the opportunity.

Skyroot will start its commercial operations in 2027 and plans to launch "one flight every month," he told CNBC, adding that after one more test flight later this year, the launches will be commercialized.

"We will be the most cost-competitive launch vehicle in this space [small payload], even before the economies of scale come into play," Daka said.

Cost competitiveness has been a hallmark of India's space tech. In the past, state-agency Indian Space Research Organization has executed Mars and Moon missions at a fraction of the cost spent by countries in the West. Both founders of Sykroot, Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, are former employees of ISRO.

Referring to Elon Musk's SpaceX, Daka said the company follows a "fail smarter and grow faster" strategy, which leads to rapid technological progress but it "burns a lot of cash." "We had to be ultra cautious with money," and the focus was on getting "the first time right."

On Saturday at 11:30 a.m. Indian Standard Time, Skyroot successfully launched a test rocket carrying a 350-kilogram payload into low orbit, making it the first Indian private company with orbital space launch capability, and joining the league of China and the U.S.

Skyroot will compete in the sub-1,000 kg market with U.S. based startups such as Rocket Lab, Firefly Aerospace, Astra Space, and Chinese private firms i-Space, Galactic Energy, CAS Space, as per data shared by market intelligence firm Analysys Mason.

Small launchers solve critical operational, strategic, and financial bottlenecks that large "bus lines" to space — think bigger payload carriers like SpaceX — cannot handle.

"A small rocket acts like an orbit-on-demand taxi," explains Ujjwal Chaudhry, a partner at Analysys Mason.

They deliver a single customer's payload directly to its precise location in space, unlike with big launchers that drop payloads in approximate positions from where satellite operators maneuver them into the exact position using internal fuel and time, he said.

These rockets offer a dedicated launch window, so small satellites do not have to wait for "ridesharing" with larger satellite launches.

Though the market size was just $5 billion in 2025, according to Analysys Mason, fewer companies operating in this space are leading to launch schedules being booked for a year or two ahead. In May, California-based Rocket Labs said its order backlog more than doubled from a year ago to $2.2 billion with launches booked through to 2029.

The company has a market cap of over $43 billion, as compared to Skyroot's $1.1 billion valuation during its $60 million fundraise in May.

Since its founding in 2018, the Indian space tech startup has raised just $150 million, and Daka told CNBC the company is "well-funded" to carry out commercial launches next year. The company will raise funds when it intensifies efforts to develop a reusable rocket, he said, adding that it is not an immediate plan.

While firms in the U.S. have a robust private market funding stream for space tech startups, Chinese companies are backed by the government, experts pointed out. Meanwhile, Indian companies in this sector struggle to raise funds.

"The patient capital pool for space tech in India is still shallow relative to the opportunity," said Natasha Malpani Oswal, founder and general partner, at venture capital firm Boundless Ventures.

Sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors such as BlackRock and GIC backing Skyroot is a signal that capital is finding its way in at scale at the later stages, she said, adding that it "is recent, and it is not yet a pattern."

Investors will likely be more open to putting their money in the space sector, if Skyroot's low-cost structure helps it deliver high profits, even as its global peers burn cash.

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