• ADU Exclusive | “We Can Build World-Class Technology From India”
  • One Launch Down, Many More to Go: Skyroot Sets Its Sights Higher
  • BSX 2026 where the latest space icon Pawan K Chandana became the show-stopper

By Sangeeta Saxena

Bengaluru. 07 September 2026.  For Pawan Kumar Chandana, Co-Founder & CEO of Skyroot Aerospace, successfully launching a rocket is not the destination—it is the beginning of a much bigger journey. Having demonstrated that a young Indian private space company can develop complex, cutting-edge launch technology, Skyroot is now looking towards more launches, a stronger domestic supply chain, global customers and, eventually, opportunities arising from India’s military-space requirements.

Speaking exclusively to Aviation & Defence Universe (ADU) at BASX 2026 in Bengaluru, Chandana underlined that sustainable success would come not from a single mission but from the ability to launch repeatedly and reliably. He also highlighted the industrial ecosystem behind Skyroot’s achievement: more than 400 suppliers contributed parts and systems to its launch vehicle, while critical carbon-composite manufacturing is being developed in-house. With an exceptionally young team behind its rocket programme, Chandana sees Skyroot’s achievement as something larger than a corporate milestone. For him, it demonstrates the technological potential of a new generation of Indians capable of developing world-class products at home—and taking them to the world.

ADU. Pawan, we are meeting at BASX 2026 in Bengaluru, where Skyroot has a major presence. You have achieved a feat that is remarkable for India’s private space sector. How does it feel?

Pawan Kumar Chandana. It feels quite satisfying, but of course, this is only the very beginning of our journey. We have done only one launch, and we want to do more and more launches. Sustainable success is very important for India and for the global space sector. I think it is a great beginning, but we would like to keep the mission going at a faster pace and undertake more and more successful missions from India for the world.

          Team Skyroot felicitated at BSX 2026

ADU. Now that Vikram has successfully crossed that first milestone, what is on Skyroot’s agenda for the near future?

Pawan Kumar Chandana. We have done the first launch of Vikram. It is a commercial vehicle and has good market potential for launching satellites. We will undertake the second mission and then do more and more missions next year. We will continue building and developing our launch vehicles.

ADU. As Skyroot grows into an OEM, how are you expanding your supply chain?

Pawan Kumar Chandana. We are very well supported. Behind the success of our first mission were more than 400 suppliers who supplied parts and systems for our launch vehicle and rocket. Many of these capabilities have been built over the years by ISRO and the wider ecosystem, and today we are standing on the shoulders of the ecosystem that has already been created. At the same time, we are bringing more and more suppliers into our programme as we grow. We are also helping create a new ecosystem that can support a greater number of launches and enable more companies and people to enter the space sector. The supply chain is one of our key backbones, and we are expanding it as we speak to make it stronger and more resilient.

ADU. Composites are an important part of your launch vehicle. How much of this capability is sourced from India and how much is manufactured in-house?

Pawan Kumar Chandana. We have metal suppliers within India and very good suppliers providing us with prefabricated material. We use that material to build the rocket. Only the raw material comes from outside. We manufacture the entire carbon-composite structure in-house. We have two factories involved in composites manufacturing. One is Max-Q or Max Cube, which is located in the GMR Aerospace Park, and we are now expanding further with additional manufacturing capacity in Infinity.

ADU. Your manufacturing infrastructure has expanded considerably. How intensively are these facilities now being utilised?

Pawan Kumar Chandana. They are already full. We are expanding because our requirement for manufacturing capability continues to grow.

ADU. Skyroot is ultimately also a commercial enterprise. What are your export and international-market plans?

Pawan Kumar Chandana. Around 70–80 per cent of our market is global. Essentially, what we export is the service of launching satellites into space, and most of our customers will be global customers. We will continue doing more and more launches for them. Rocket launching can also be a very profitable business because there are very few companies globally that can provide launch solutions. We are now one of them.

ADU. India is placing increasing emphasis on military space capabilities. Do you see Skyroot eventually becoming part of India’s military-space ecosystem?

Pawan Kumar Chandana. We have capabilities that can also be utilised for such requirements. However, we are still in an early phase of development. As our capabilities grow, there can certainly be applications for different requirements, including those of the defence sector. We have just started thinking about this use case and initial talks have just begun.

ADU. You and your team represent a very young generation of Indian technologists and entrepreneurs. What would you like to tell young Indians who dream of doing something similarly ambitious?

Pawan Kumar Chandana. If you look at what we have achieved, launching a rocket is an extremely complex technological challenge, and we are one of very few companies in the world to have done it. The average age of our team is only 28 years and for 95 per cent of them, this was their first rocket launch. If we can do this, it shows you the potential that exists. It is nothing but the potential of Young India. If we can do it, everybody can do it. Our launch demonstrates that we can build cutting-edge, world-class technology from India. We are nothing less than anybody else in the world.

ADU. Finally, how do you see Skyroot’s growth fitting into the larger growth story of India?

Pawan Kumar Chandana. We want to build world-class products and services from India for the world. The launch is just the beginning. We will keep doing more and more interesting work, and we hope Skyroot will become one of the best in the world. Every successful launch has the potential to create demand across materials, precision manufacturing, electronics, composites, propulsion, testing and specialised engineering. And Skyroot will work towards fulfilling that demand.

Beyond rockets, launch vehicles, supply chains and global ambitions, perhaps the most telling measure of Skyroot’s success at BXS 2026 was visible on the exhibition floor itself. Their booth had become one of the show’s most sought-after destinations and Pawan Kumar Chandana was definitely the show-stopper. Young students and aspiring engineers crowded around him, but so did seasoned professionals and older visitors. Everyone seemed to want the same thing—a few words with the man behind Skyroot and invariably – a photograph with him.

For a generation accustomed to looking overseas for its technology icons, here was a home-grown space entrepreneur becoming something of a new-age Indian hero. Chandana was no longer simply the CEO explaining rockets and commercial launch markets, for many youngsters at the show, he represented proof that audacious dreams could be engineered into reality right here in India. The excitement surrounding him reflected something larger than celebrity—it was aspiration.

And that may ultimately be Skyroot’s most powerful achievement. It has not only made space exciting, it has made the Indian private space sector a destination where young engineers now want to build their careers. If the crowds around Chandana were any indication, Skyroot is fast becoming one of the places India’s brightest young minds want to be. The rocket may have put Skyroot into space but Pawan Kumar Chandana appears to have ignited something equally important on the ground—a generation that wants to follow.

Some interviews are assignments. Some become memorable milestones in a journalist’s journey. Meeting Pawan Kumar Chandana, Co-Founder & CEO of Skyroot Aerospace, at BSX 2026 in Bengaluru for an exclusive interview as Editor of Aviation & Defence Universe (ADU) was certainly the latter. There was something immensely inspiring about sitting across this young Indian entrepreneur who dared to dream of building rockets—and then turned that dream into a reality and created  a company at the forefront of India’s private space revolution.

As told to Sangeeta Saxena