Pawan Kumar Chandana & Naga Bharath Daka

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Eight years ago, Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka left the security of an Isro job with an ambitious belief—that India’s future in space would not belong to the government alone. On July 18, that belief became history. With the flawless launch of Vikram-1, Skyroot Aerospace became the first Indian private company to place a rocket into orbit, marking a defining moment for the country’s commercial space industry. For Chandana, the milestone is just the beginning. “We are an eight-year-old company that developed an orbital launch vehicle... the quickest development globally with a first-time success,” he says. “We’ll be getting into commercial flights, launching satellites step-by-step.” The partnership between the two founders has been complementary. Chandana, the propulsion expert and CEO, has shaped Skyroot’s long-term vision of making space access faster and more affordable. Daka, the engineer behind the launch vehicle development, has focussed on execution—turning that vision into flight-ready hardware. “The vehicle matched every technical expectation we designed on paper,” Daka says. Beyond the technical achievement lies a broader transformation—Vikram-1 is built with 95% indigenous components. For Chandana and Daka, however, orbit is not the destination. “Right now our core focus is launching satellites,” Chandana says. “But one day, we’ll get to a point where we’ll be launching humans.” For Skyroot, the next chapter has already begun.