Hyderabad-based Sky root Aerospace Private Limited is an Indian private aerospace manufacturer and provider providing commercial space operations.  Former ISRO engineers and scientists started the organization. It intends to produce and deploy a line of small lift propulsion systems designed specifically for the market for small satellites.

ABOUT:

Former Indian Space Research Organization scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka started Sky root Aerospace in July 2018 with the support of Vasudevan Gnanagandhi and a small group of investors, including Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagor, the co-founders of CureFit. Initial funding for Sky root was $4.3 million, including contributions from Solar Industries, a space and defence contractor. The “Vikram 1,” the company’s first launch vehicle, has been in development.

Sky root Aerospace introduced a new look that symbolizes their willingness to discover space and their mission of “Opening Space for all.” Their logo discreetly transforms the SKYROOT acronym into a rocket-plane, and the sleek, sophisticated edges stand in for their cutting-edge technology.

HISTORY:

 Private aerospace manufacturer Sky root Aerospace was established in 2018. The business offers services for commercial launches as well. Former ISRO scientists and engineers started the company Sky root (Indian Space Research Organization). The business is now attempting to create Vikram 1, its first launch vehicle. They intend to start it up toward the end of 2022. Sky root Aerospace was the recipient of the National Startup of the Year Award in 2020. A number of tiny lift launch vehicles designed specifically for small satellite spacecraft are what Sky root plans to construct and launch. Here is a success tale for it. Previously employed ISRO scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka founded Sky root Aerospace in July 2018. Having spent six years working for ISRO, Pawan Kumar desired to launch his own business. Vasudevan Gnanagandhi and a group of businesspeople, including the creators of Cure Fit, also provided support for the organization.

 Sky root Aerospace first received funding from Solar Industries in the amount of $4.3 million. The business has hired a 100-person workforce over the course of 3 years. One of the few Indians included in the Forbes 30Under30 Asia list is Pawan Kumar. The business is currently creating Vikram 1, its first launch vehicle. By the close of 2022, the car will be launched. The founders passed each significant milestone one at a time. Additionally, Sky root Aerospace has won a number of honors. The group got the Aegis Graham Bell Award for innovation in March 2021. The business also has a number of high-profile investors, including Mukesh Bansal, the creator of Myntra, Graph Ventures, Vedanshu Investments, and former WhatsApp CBO Neeraj Arora.

Sky root Aerospace has engaged clients worldwide and has already begun taking reservations for launches in less than three years. This is the first company in India to officially sign a contract with ISRO for the use of its resources. LinkedIn listed Sky root Aerospace on their list of “The 2021 LinkedIn Top Startups” in September of that year. The business raised about $17 million in 2022, the most money ever raised from an Indian space startup. The Raman-1 test firing propelled the business to prominence. Sky root was the first startup in India to develop such an engine after that. Additionally, they fired off an actual rocket motor. Sky root aspires to develop technology for affordable access to space in a third area. In conclusion, their tale is incredibly motivating.

DEVELOPMENT:

The third stage of the company’s first rocket is known as Kalam-100 in honor of Indian scientist and former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The small space launch market is served by the liquid-fueled kick stage in addition to the three solid fuel stages that make up the Vikram-I rocket. According to the company’s website, it can be constructed and deployed from any launch complex within 24 hours and is built to transport up to 480 kilos to low-inclination orbits. The other two, Vikram-II and Vikram-III, would be able to transport greater payloads with repeated orbital insertions, according to Sky root. Vikram-I is one of three rockets that Sky root is currently constructing. According to CEO Pawan Kumar Chandana, the rocket stage was tested-fired at a private test facility in Nagpur City, India, for TechCrunch. That territory is owned by Solar Industries India, a maker of industrial explosives, ammunition, and propulsion systems and a Sky root investor.

Test firings for Stages 1 and 2 will come next, according to Chandana. The majority of the testing expenses will be covered by the company’s current capital, which consists of a $11 million Series A and a $4.5 million bridging deal. He stated that Sky root is now raising a Series B to take the business on “many orbital launches. “With all of this cash, Sky root should be able to launch a technological demonstration by the end of this year and launch its first commercial orbital flight early the following year. Sky root would become the first privately owned Indian company to develop and launch a personal rocket with that launch, which would originate from India’s spaceport on Srihari Kota Island.

COLLABORATION:

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Sky root Aerospace and the Indian private satellite maker Dhruva Space.

A non-disclosure pact was negotiated by Sky root Aerospace and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) (NDA). Sky root Aerospace would be able to use the resources and technological know-how at ISRO centers to create their launch vehicles thanks to the NDA.

Bellatrix Aerospace and Sky root Aerospace have teamed to use Bellatrix Aerospace’s orbital transfer vehicle with Sky root Aerospace’s Vikram series of launch vehicles.

FOUNDER:

PAWAN KUMAR CHANDANA:

IIT-Kharagpur alumni Pawan Kumar Chandana completed a dual degree programme to get a Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and a Master’s in thermal science and engineering. For six years, Pawan was a scientist at the ISRO’s rocket design Centre (VSSC), where he earned two invention awards. He spent five years working on the GSLV Mk-III, the biggest rocket produced in India, at this time. Additionally, he was a System Engineer for the S200 booster rocket for the GSLV Mk-3, the third-largest solid rocket stage in the world. He served as the Deputy Project Manager for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle during his final year at ISRO.

CO-FOUNDER:

NAGA BHARATH DHAKA:

IIT-Madras graduate and co-founder Naga Bharat holds dual degrees in electrical engineering (Bachelor’s) and microelectronics and VLS design (Master’s). He designed the hardware and firmware for several important onboard computer modules that execute the sequencing, navigation, control, and guidance operations of the launch vehicle while he was employed by ISRO as a Flight Computer Engineer at VSSC. Naga has experience with FPGAs, which are used in all space and defence applications, through his work in the semiconductor business. He is currently in charge of Sky root’s operations, avionics, and GNC teams.

FUNDING:

Sky root Aerospace has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round, which has been led by the founding members of the renewable energy company Greenko Group (Anil Chalamalasetty and Mahesh Kolli). Other investors in the round here include Solar Industries, the former Chief Business Officer (CBO) of WhatsApp, Neeraj Arora, Mukesh Bansal, the founder of Myntra and Curefit, as well as Worldquant Ventures, Graph Ventures, Sutton Capital, these funds would be used by Sky root Aerospace to grow its workforce and complete the full development and testing of all Vikram 1 launch vehicle subsystems.

Ram Shriram, a founding board member of Google, led a $4.5 million bridge round to Series B capital for Sky root Aerospace. Wami Capital, existing investors Neeraj Arora, a former WhatsApp chief business officer, and Amit Singhal, a former Google executive, all engaged in the bridge round. Sky root aims to use the money to build the equipment needed to launch spacecraft. With the help of this round, Sky root is able to quickly develop essential infrastructure and move closer to the 2022 launch of Vikram 1. This new funding round takes the business’s total money raised to over $17 million, currently the largest Indian space startup to date.

PRODUCTS:

RAMAN-1

Sky root originally got recognition in August 2020 when it test-fired the Raman-I hypergolic-fuel upper stage engine, which has been named after C. V. Raman. The liquid-fuel upper stage of this engine is a component of Vikram-I, and Sky root was the first private organization in India to test it.

KALAM-5

Sky root tested Kalam-5, the first of five carbon-composite Kalam rocket engines that are expected to power its launch vehicles, on December 22, 2020. Kalam-5 is named after A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. The test took place in Nagpur at a commercial testing center controlled by Solar Industries, a Sky root investor. The number 5 in the name “Kalam-5” stands for the maximum sea level thrust of 5.3 kN. The Kalam-5 will be quadrupled in size by the series’ final powerplant.

KALAM -100

A significant accomplishment for Sky root Aerospace was the successful conclusion of a full-length test-firing of its”Vikram-1″ rocket stage on May 19, 2022. The third stage of “Vikram-1,” dubbed “Kalam-100” in honor of former president and illustrious Indian rocket scientist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has a peak vacuum thrust of 100 kN (or around 10 Tons) and has a burn period of 108 sec. High-strength carbon fibre, solid fuel, an innovative thermal protection system, and a carbon ablative nozzle were used in the construction of the rocket stage. The Vikram-1 orbital vehicle will benefit from this testing, which also provides significant assurance for the remaining rocket stages that are going to undergo testing. With a record amount of propellant, this rocket stage is the finest in its class.

DHAWAN-1

The Dhawan-1 upper stage cryogenic engine, named after Satish Dhawan, was launched by Sky root Aerospace on September 25, 2020. It would power heavier-lift systems like Vikram-II.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be used in this cryogenic engine for the first time in India; LNG offers the advantages of being clean, reusable, and suitable for long-duration space missions. Dhawan-1 is a 3D-printed spacecraft featuring regenerative cooling technology. 

On November 25, 2021, Sky root successfully test fired Dhawan-1, a small cryogenic engine powered by liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas that was privately created in India. It served as a technology demonstration experiment for the Vikram-2 rocket’s upper stage, which is currently undergoing development. The test site was provided by Solar Industries, motor produced by using super alloys.

STAR PROJECT OF THE COMPANY:

VIKRAM -1

India’s first rocket for commercial missions to be commercially developed and designed is called Vikram-1. The business is on scheduled to launch its first complete rocket after the successful test-firing of the Vikram-1 rocket stage.

Vikram-1 has three solid fuel-powered stages. The burn times for each level range from 80 to 108 seconds. In honor of renowned Indian rocket scientist and former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the third stage of Vikram-1 has been given the name “Kalam-100.” According to a statement made public by the business, it has a burn time of 108 seconds and a peak vacuum thrust of 100 kN (or 10 tons).

ACHIEVEMENTS:

Sky root Aerospace was named the winner of the National Startup Awards 2020 on October 6, 2020, according to Piyush Goyal, the union minister of commerce and industry. The National Startup Awards are presented to startups in a number of categories that provide fresh answers to the nation’s challenging problems while also building businesses that are scalable and sustainable.

The Sky root Aerospace team earned the 2020 Aegis Graham Bell Award for Jury’s Favorite in the Innovation Category.

The 25 new, rising organizations that India wants to work with were recognized as the “2021 LinkedIn Top Startups.” The 2021 Top Startups List in India by LinkedIn placed Sky root Aerospace in seventh place.

An additional national award, given to Sky root Aerospace on National Technology Day 2022, was given to the company.

 CAREER AT SKY ROOT AEROSPACE:

While maintaining the necessary flexibility and enjoyment, there are numerous opportunities to work on complex issues that change the world. Work with the greatest people to develop a career that is exploding with adventure, learning, fulfilment, and progress. Some of the fields that youngsters can look upon at the organization are:

• Embedded software engineer (avionics)
• Design and mechanical integration engineer
• Signal processing algorithm developer
• Embedded hardware engineer (avionics)
• Aerodynamics engineer
• Structural analysis enigneer

REFERENCES:

https://yourstory.com/companies/skyroot-aerospace/amp

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THE SAME, DO LET ME KNOW.

Do follow me on Facebook, Twitter  Youtube and Instagram.

The copyright of this Article belongs exclusively to Ms. Aishwarya Sandeep. Reproduction of the same, without permission will amount to Copyright Infringement. Appropriate Legal Action under the Indian Laws will be taken.

If you would also like to contribute to my website, then do share your articles or poems at secondinnings.hr@gmail.com

In the year 2021, we wrote about 1000 Inspirational Women In India, in the year 2022, we would be featuring 5000 Start Up Stories.