Our guests today are Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, co-founders of Skyroot Aerospace, who are preparing to flight test their first space rocket by the end of this year. In this conversation, Pawan and Bharath talk about their aspiration to be a launch vehicle provider of choice, with the ability to launch a rocket a day, on demand.

(00:39) Intro to The Daily Tech Conversation

(00:56) Our guests today — Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, co-founders of Skyroot Aerospace

(01:45) A snapshot of Skyroot, and this year is the first launch

(03:20) The rocket tech being developed Skyroot, ground tested multiple propulsion technologies

(05:16) Focussing on small satellite launch vehicles, which is the opportunity ahead

(07:25) Innovations that make Skyroot’s rockets efficient to build and launch

(09:35) Modular rockets for mass product and rapid assembly; the path to commercialisation

(11:14) The opportunity in the years to come — tens of thousands of satellites

(13:28) Current Technology Readiness Level for Vikram 1

(14:55) The ambition for the long term is to have Skyroot’s own independent launch infrastructure

(16:45) The aim is to achieve a ‘high cadence’ launch capability of one launch every few days and eventually even one every day

(20:30) Plug-and-play capabilities of the Vikram series of rockets

(21:44) Important lessons from building Skyroot so far

(23:25) Carbon fibre module for a solid fuel stage — a first for an Indian private space tech company

(26:00) Achieving the product-market fit in a mission-critical hardware startup — the first launch will be a finger-crossing experience

(28:36) Funding snapshot and plans over the next 12 months

(30:45) Some positive changes in the funding ecosystem for space tech in India

About Skyroot Aerospace

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds