PM lauds Hyd space start-ups Skyroot, Dhruva Space on Mann Ki Baat

Hyderabad: Lauding the achievement of the country's space sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 90th episode of his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat talked about the strides being made by Hyderabad start-ups Skyroot and Dhruva Space.

"Till a few years ago, in our country's space sector, no one had even thought about start-ups. Today their number is more than a hundred. All these start-ups are working on ideas that were either not thought about earlier or were considered impossible for the private sector. For example, Chennai and Hyderabad have two start-ups – Agnikul and Skyroot. They are developing launch vehicles that will take small payloads into space. Through this, the cost of space launching is estimated to come down significantly," said Mr. Modi.

Talking about Dhruva Space, the Prime Minister said, "Dhruva Space, another start-up of Hyderabad, is working on high technology solar panels for satellite deployer and satellites. I also met Tanveer Ahmed of Digantara, another space start-up that is trying to map waste in space. I have also given him the challenge to evolve a working technology that can solve the problem of waste in space. Both Digantara and Dhruva Space are going to make their first launch from ISRO's launch vehicle on 30 June."

Skyroot Aerospace was formed in January 2017 by former Indian Space Research Organisation scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana, Naga Bharath Daka, and Vasudevan Gnanagandhi. It won the National Start-up Awards 2020 in the space category in October for its innovations.

In August 2020, Skyroot first came into the limelight when it test-fired the Raman-I solid-fuel upper stage. This solid-fuel upper stage is a component of Vikram-I and Skyroot was the first Indian private entity to test such a stage.

Skyroot, which builds small satellite launch vehicles (SSLVs), is among the nine ground-breaking start-ups and the only space start-up in the country chosen to interact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to commemorate five years of the Startup India initiative.

Dhruva Space Private Limited is a National Award-winning space technology start-up focused on building full-stack space engineering solutions. The company is based out of Hyderabad, India, and Graz, Austria.

Meanwhile, Dhruva Space offers satellites coupled with Earth stations and launch services as an integrated solution or individually as a technology solution to power space-based applications on Earth and beyond.