From ISRO To Startups: Skyroot’s Vikram-1 Marks New Chapter For India’s Space Sector | News18

Video from the channel CNN-News18 about Vikram-I, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 25:17. Language: English. Video type: News.

CNN-News18 report linking two situations in the Indian space sector in mid-2026: ISRO's rough patch and the first orbital launch by a private company in the country. On July 18, Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1 lifted off from Sriharikota, presented as the first orbital rocket built by a private Indian company to reach orbit on its first attempt. Liftoff came at 12:05, after a glitch around 11:30 that was resolved by restarting the automatic sequence; the flight lasted about 16 minutes, and the Skyroot team followed it from ISRO's control room, with support from its scientists.

The PSLV, ISRO's workhorse since 1994 with more than 60 missions, suffered two failures in a row: in May 2025, on the agency's 101st launch, the third stage failed, and on January 12, 2026, another mission also failed to be completed. Since then, PSLV launches have been paused while the recommendations of the national failure-analysis committee are implemented. At the same time, a memo from the Department of Space records a wave of requests for voluntary retirement and resignations, including in Gaganyaan teams, and asks that these not be processed routinely. The experts interviewed play down the severity of both matters: failures are common in launch vehicles operating with minimal margins, and engineers leaving for industry is a well-known phenomenon.

The report places the launch within the opening of the sector to private companies in 2020: today there are more than 400 space startups, and Skyroot, founded in 2018 in Hyderabad, is its first unicorn. A government official puts India's space economy at close to $9 billion, aiming for $40-45 billion within less than a decade; India accounts for around 2% of the global space economy, with a target of reaching 8-9%. Co-founder Pawan Chandana explains that the mission was named Aagaman for the arrival of a new era, and the team, with a median age of 28, is already working on the next rocket. ISRO, for its part, wants to focus on Gaganyaan, which plans three uncrewed missions before the crewed flight, on bringing back lunar samples, and on a mission to Venus.