Start-ups such as Skyroot, Agnikul, Pixxel and Dhruva Space now build rockets and satellites; Skyroot's Vikram-I became India's first private rocket to reach orbit in 2026.
In 2014 India had one registered space start-up. By February 2026 there were more than 400. Investment in them passed $500 million, with nearly $150 million arriving in 2025 alone. The change followed the 2020 reforms that opened space to private companies.
Skyroot Aerospace, a Hyderabad start-up founded in June 2018, flew India's first privately built rocket. Vikram-S, a single-stage solid-fuel rocket, made a sub-orbital flight from Sriharikota on 18 November 2022 with three customer payloads.
On 18 July 2026 Skyroot's Vikram-I lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. It was the first orbital launch by a private Indian company from Indian soil, and it worked first time. Vikram-I has three solid stages and one liquid stage. It placed two satellites, SCOPE and Grahaa, in low Earth orbit.
Agnikul Cosmos, a start-up incubated at IIT Madras, flew Agnibaan SOrTeD on 30 May 2024. Its engine was 3D-printed as a single piece, and it was India's first rocket launch powered by a semi-cryogenic engine. It flew from Dhanush, India's first private launch pad, at Sriharikota.
Pixxel launched its first three Firefly satellites on SpaceX's Transporter-12 rideshare in January 2025. They are hyperspectral cameras: each picture is split into more than 150 colour bands, at 5 m resolution.
In August 2025, IN-SPACe selected a consortium led by Pixxel with Dhruva Space, PierSight and SatSure to build a 12-satellite national Earth-observation constellation. The partners will design, build, own and operate it, investing more than ₹1,200 crore.
Worked example: a phone camera records 3 colour bands (red, green, blue). A Firefly image has over 150. That is 50 times more colour information for every pixel, which helps tell one crop or mineral from another.
Private companies still lean on ISRO. For Vikram-I, ISRO provided motor casting and static test facilities, launch pad access and safety oversight, while IN-SPACe handled technical reviews and launch clearance. By early 2026, six private Indian companies had launched 18 satellites.
Check whether the Mission Aagaman objects have catalogue numbers yet; once they do, their estimated positions appear on the map. Follow Vikram-1's payloads
Sub-orbital versus orbital. Vikram-S went up and came down. Vikram-I had to reach orbit. The energy difference is large.
Take a sub-orbital hop to 100 km. The energy per kilogram is roughly g × h ≈ 9.5 m/s² × 100,000 m ≈ 0.95 MJ/kg (using an average g, since gravity weakens slightly with height).
Now take a circular orbit at 450 km. The orbital speed is v = √(GM/r) = √(398,600 / 6,828) ≈ 7.64 km/s. Kinetic energy per kilogram is ½v² = ½ × 7,640² ≈ 29.2 MJ/kg. Add the climb to 450 km, about 4.2 MJ/kg. The total is about 33 MJ/kg, roughly 35 times the sub-orbital hop.
This is why most of an orbital rocket's work goes into sideways speed, not height, and why Vikram-I needed four stages while Vikram-S needed one.
Investment in context. The Lok Sabha was told that investment in Indian space start-ups was $124.7 million in 2023. By 2025 nearly $150 million arrived in a single year. Together with the government's ₹1,000 crore venture fund, planned at ₹10–60 crore per company, this money mostly pays for hardware testing, which is the slowest and costliest part of building a rocket or satellite.
Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-I, which launched from Sriharikota on 18 July 2026 and placed two satellites in low Earth orbit.
Agnibaan SOrTeD used a single-piece 3D-printed engine, was India's first semi-cryogenic-engine launch, and flew from Dhanush, India's first private launch pad.
One whose camera splits light into many narrow colour bands; Pixxel's Firefly satellites record more than 150 bands at 5 m resolution.