Telangana Will Have India’s First Integrated Rocket Facility: State Industries Minister KT Rama Rao

Telangana IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Friday (25 November) expressed support to Skyroot to establish in the State what he claimed as the country's first integrated rocket design, manufacturing and testing facility.

KTR, as the minister is popularly known, was the guest of honour at an event organised at T-Hub in Hyderabad to celebrate Skyroot Aerospace's successful launch of Vikram-S rocket.

Speaking at the event, he expressed happiness that the facility would be based in Telangana, according to a release from his office.

The Hyderabad-based startup, incubated at T-Hub (a state government initiative for startups), launched India's first private rocket on 18 November. Congratulating the Skyroot team, KTR expressed pride and happiness that a space tech company from Hyderabad broke all the barriers.

The minister further said he would be thrilled to see Hyderabad as the space tech capital of India and noted that the state government already launched a space tech policy, according to the release.

Skyroot Aerospace became the first privately held company in India after the space sector was opened for the private players by the union government in 2020.

The Mission unveiled by ISRO Chairman S Somanath has three payloads with two belonging to domestic customers and one from a foreign client.

The 6-metre tall launch vehicle is one of the world's first few all-composite rockets that has 3-D printed solid thrusters for spin stability of the launch vehicle.

Skyroot Aerospace wants to build high-technology, low-cost, reliable launch vehicles. Its co-founders Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka previously worked with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as rocket scientists for about a handful of years before starting up in 2018.

India in global space economy

The global space economy is valued at just over $450 billion, out of which India’s share is roughly about 2 per cent. The key to increasing India’s contribution to the global space output lies with the private sector. 

That is why the government of India opened the space sector to private enterprises and made room for sharing ISRO know-how and infrastructure with private players.

A little over two years later, a private player is set for take-off using their own rocket from ISRO’s launch base.

In 2021, Skyroot formally signed up with ISRO. By entering into an agreement with the Department of Space on 2 February, it secured access to ISRO’s facilities and technical expertise as they went about developing their launch vehicles.

Over a year later, in June 2022, the Hyderabad-based startup signed an agreement (MoU) with the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), which enabled the launch of its rockets from the ISRO spaceport.

(With inputs from PTI)