Ten years ago, building and launching a private orbital rocket from India may have felt almost impossible. Orbital launch was the domain of governments alone, until Elon Musk and SpaceX proved a private company could get there too.
Today, a young Indian team has done it successfully on its first attempt, and India now joins that rare club.
I enjoyed speaking with Pawan about the years of work behind Vikram-1, the fear of failure before the launch, and the support Skyroot received from the government, IN-SPACe, and the wider ecosystem.
What excites me most is what this signals to the world: India can build high-precision, highly reliable, deep-technology products for global customers.
Neil Armstrong once described a single step as a giant leap for mankind. For India's private space journey, this is exactly that kind of leap. A historic beginning for Skyroot and an important moment for every Indian entrepreneur building for the world.