Rocketmen from Hyderabad

Skyroot is working simultaneously on different stages of both solid propulsion and liquid propulsion engines

When the new age Skyroot Aerospace successfully tested ‘Dhawan-1’, it became the country’s first privately developed fully cryogenic rocket engine running on two high-performance rocket propellants — Liquid Natural gas (LNG) & Liquid Oxygen (LoX) last month. The indigenous engine was developed using 3D printing with a superalloy.

That has set the city based firm into a higher trajectory path with an ambitious plan to launch the first private space launch vehicle using cryogenic engine ‘Vikram-2’ into orbit in two years time. Before that, the two co-founders and ex-IITians Pawan Kumar C. (Kharagpur 2012 batch) and Naga Bharath D, (Madras, 2012 batch) plan to put its first launch vehicle 20 metre tall ‘Vikram 1’ vehicle based on solid propulsion engine into space. This was after successfully designing and developing the solid propulsion rocket engine, the first private firm in the country to do so.

“We are space enthusiasts, always wanting to become entrepreneurs and to capture the emerging opportunities in the space sector. World over the private sector is driving innovations at a low cost. There was no regulatory framework when we began three years ago, but we are on the verge of taking off now testing multiple engines. Very few countries have developed a cryogenic engine,” said Mr. Kumar. “It took us a year to conceptualise our work, we knew it required a lot of research, but we were pretty sure of our skill sets. We have been able to iron out the deficiencies with a rigorous review system,” said Mr. Bharath.