India’s🇮🇳 Space HERO - Aliens, Space Economy & Rocket Making | Ex-ISRO Scientist & Skyroot CEO | TRS

The Ranveer Show हिंदी

In this episode, Ranveer visits Skyroot Aerospace to interview CEO Pawan Kumar Chandana about India's burgeoning private space sector. The c

Key takeaways

• Skyroot Aerospace achieved India's first successful private orbital launch on its very first attempt.
• The global space economy is projected to become a trillion-dollar industry, driven by satellite communications and surveillance.

Main topics

• Private Space Industry
• ISRO to Entrepreneurship Journey

Notable quotes

Rockets are the most complicated machines ever built by humans.

Conclusion

An inspiring look at how India's engineering talent is positioning the

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Now that I'm here in front of this large rocket. By Speaker 1 (0:03) the way, is this a real one? These are the ones which have fired and they've done their job. Feel like I'm touching history. Speaker 2 (0:11) Jai Hind dosto. India has always been a country of brilliant minds and scientists. And ISRO has proved it to the world. Mission after mission. But now, something even bigger is happening. Speaker 3 (0:28) And we have lift off Speaker 1 (0:30) from Vikram Speaker 3 (0:31) 1, India's first Speaker 1 (0:32) private orbital launch. Speaker 3 (0:33) Jai Hind, Pawan Bhai, thank you for everything you're doing for India. Hi Ranveer, good to have you here. On Speaker 2 (0:39) July 18, Skyroot Aerospace became the first private Indian company to successfully launch a rocket into orbit from Indian soil on its very first attempt. Speaker 3 (0:52) IIT to ISRO to Skyroot. Speaker 2 (0:55) The Speaker 3 (0:55) PM is calling you for the rocket launch. It's crazy the kind of work you're doing, bro. Speaker 2 (1:00) Today, I'm at Skyroot to speak with Pawan Kumar Chandana about rockets, aliens, the future of space and what it really takes to build a private space company from India. Because India's space economy is already worth an estimated $8.4 billion. And companies like Skyroot a building for a global market. Speaker 3 (1:26) Roughly how much does a client pay you to put this satellite up in space? Speaker 1 (1:30) So in general, like the rocket like this, right? Think of it like something like 100 prods. Wow! Speaker 2 (1:35) With international customers and an ecosystem of 400 plus suppliers, mostly in India. Speaker 3 (1:44) Based on where space tech is heading, do you think that within our lifetimes, we'll reach a point where we're able to send Humans outside of the solar system? Speaker 1 (1:54) In our lifetimes, I believe yes. Yeah, I think it should be done in, you know, 30 years, maybe 25-30 years. Wow. Yeah. That's Speaker 3 (2:02) like now, bro. Speaker 2 (2:03) This isn't just about going to space. It's about taking India with us. Speaker 3 (2:08) What's the most fascinating thing about space Speaker 1 (2:12) for you? I think like rocket launching and then every launch gives that high which you can't express. We are very proud of doing this from India and for the world. In fact, most of our market is global. Speaker 3 (2:28) We Speaker 1 (2:28) are doing high-tech things like rocket for the world. All the Speaker 3 (2:32) best, man. This is not the end of this chat. This is just the starting. Speaker 3 (3:02) Jai Hind, Pawan Bhai, thank you for everything you're doing for India. Speaker 1 (3:06) Hi Ranveer, good to have you here. And yeah, fantastic, happy to show you around. Speaker 3 (3:11) You're one of the best representations of the engineering community as well. IIT to ISRO to Skyroot, Speaker 1 (3:18) the Speaker 3 (3:19) PM is calling you for the rocket launch. It's crazy the kind of work you're doing, bro. Speaker 1 (3:23) Yeah, thank you. Speaker 3 (3:25) So nice seeing the Indian flag also. Yes, yes, yes. Right up there. Speaker 1 (3:28) Yeah, very proud of, you know, doing this from India. and for the world in fact like most of our market is global. Wow. We're doing high-tech things like rocket for the world. Speaker 3 (3:45) Bro, I mean, where do we even begin explaining what you're doing here? How do you explain this to a five year old? What are you doing here? Speaker 1 (3:52) Yeah, so this, where we are here today, this is our rocket factory. This is our headquarters where we build rockets which can put satellites into space. And these rockets are, just to imagine, it's a seven storey building tall rocket. right so and then they lift off from earth and put satellites into space and these satellites orbit around the earth and then it gives us a lot of benefits from space for the common man you know from agriculture to you know fishermen to communications right so this is like gps right so all that so every so a lot of these come from space and this is what uh these rockets do and uh and also it's like very fascinating because Rockets are the most complicated machines ever built by humans. It's Speaker 3 (4:45) a Speaker 1 (4:45) magical thing, looking at a rocket launch and then it takes 15 minutes to reach orbit and put satellites into space. So this is a factory where we manufacture them and test them and then get them ready for launch and we take it to the launch pad and then launch it from there. Speaker 3 (5:00) I'll kind of also simplify what I have gathered about you through my research. Speaker 1 (5:05) Okay. Speaker 3 (5:05) You are basically a logistics company but to take things to space. Speaker 1 (5:10) Now Speaker 3 (5:10) those things are primarily satellites right now. Correct. Speaker 1 (5:13) And space Speaker 3 (5:13) tech has advanced to a point where right from space you can detect a 0.1 Kelvin change that's happening on earth. Speaker 1 (5:21) Yeah. Speaker 3 (5:21) Heat tech has like progressed to that degree. Yeah. So surveillance, GPS is the beginning of this space tech. You're getting the world satellites up there. Speaker 1 (5:32) Correct. For Speaker 3 (5:33) what I assume is a much lower cost than say a foreign counterpart company. Yeah. Speaker 1 (5:39) Am I right? That's right. So, basically, you know, there are very few companies in the world which launch rockets. Hardly, I mean, there are only two companies which launch regularly and both are US companies and that's it. And so the world needs more access to space and space is set to become a trillion dollar business in few years and we have only two companies launching regularly. Speaker 1 (6:04) And this will enable like you said, GPS, it enables like surveillance, it enables communications. For example, only 10 % of the earth's surface you get a mobile network. Speaker 3 (6:15) Other Speaker 1 (6:16) 90 % of the earth's surface will be connected through space. Even today, for example, even in aircraft you might have seen, you know, when you fly in, you get some internet in the aircraft, it's all through satellite, all ships through satellite, all regions where you don't get like towers, everything is through satellite. And yeah, so these are the applications which, so communication, navigation, you know, surveillance, earth observation, there's so many applications. That's why it's going to be a trillion dollar economy. Now the next big thing is data centers in space. Where the compute, today we use chat GPT, the compute will be cheaper in the future doing it in space because you have enormous energy of the sun in space. yeah what Speaker 3 (6:58) is that sound these are servers yeah Speaker 1 (7:00) that's a uh thermal chamber so what we do is that all the electronic electronics which go into the rocket we heat them to extreme temperatures to make them survive the launch you know in the launch things get heated up so the electronics have to work so that's the sound from the chamber and we have like thermal chamber we have a vacuum chamber i mean we we have that vibration chamber as well that means what we do we vibrate all the things which go into the rocket, we vibrate them in extreme vibration whatever it faces in the launch and then we check them that everything is intact, everything is working then only we integrate in the rocket. Then it takes the rocket flight. Speaker 3 (7:39) Yeah, I have so many insights based on what I studied about you one of which is that it's kind of easier to create larger rockets than to create smaller rockets. Because more than 30,000 spare parts go into creating one rocket. So Speaker 1 (7:52) if Speaker 3 (7:52) you're creating a small thing, there is a grams factor that comes into play. Correct. Speaker 1 (7:57) Now Speaker 3 (7:58) that I'm here in front of this large rocket, Speaker 1 (8:01) by Speaker 3 (8:02) the way, is this a real one? Speaker 1 (8:03) Yeah, so these are the actual tested hardware. So before we fly, we fire them on the ground and these are the ones which have fired and they've done their job. And now they are like, you know, put here. Speaker 3 (8:15) Are Speaker 1 (8:15) you allowed to Speaker 3 (8:15) touch? Speaker 1 (8:15) Yeah, yeah, of course. Speaker 3 (8:16) I can touch? Yeah, yeah, of course. Speaker 1 (8:17) This is already tested and gone. It's come back? Not come back. We tested. And then after that it's consumed, this job is done. So now it's on the display. And whatever we can launch, we'll already launch. And we already launched. And the second launch is already, we sent it to the launch site now for the next launch. Wow, man. And, yeah. I feel like I'm Speaker 3 (8:37) touching history. Speaker 1 (8:39) Yes, yes. In fact, this is a historic... stage, in fact this whatever engine testing, it creates 120 tons of thrust. That means it can lift maybe 20-25 elephants. Oh Speaker 2 (8:54) wow! Speaker 1 (8:54) You know, that's the kind of thrust this generates. And then it generates an energy of 3 gigawatts. You can light up an entire town. Wow! So that's the kind of energy rockets generate to actually lift off to space. Speaker 3 (9:07) That's crazy. Bro, like I remember reading that I believe your initial investor was Mukesh Bansal? Speaker 1 (9:15) Yeah, that's right. And he wrote you Speaker 3 (9:16) a cheque of something in the range of 10 crores. 10 Speaker 1 (9:18) crores, yeah. Speaker 3 (9:19) My question to you is about this room, all this equipment and these devices we see around us, just how much would this room be worth? Speaker 1 (9:27) This entire factory might be like close to 15 million dollars or something. Wow, Speaker 3 (9:34) that Speaker 1 (9:35) is Speaker 3 (9:35) 15 into... How much? 100 rupees right now? Speaker 1 (9:39) Yeah, correct. So it will be like 150 crores or so. The entire factory including the construction and everything of that sort. Speaker 3 (9:50) That's insane, man. Speaker 3 (9:59) You know I want to ask you about your time at ISRO because it's not too many people that leave ISRO then to create their own private enterprise. Speaker 1 (10:10) You Speaker 3 (10:10) had that entrepreneurial bug even since your IIT days. Speaker 1 (10:15) And Speaker 3 (10:15) then in ISRO you're obviously learning a lot more about space tech and all that. At what point did you figure that okay. Now is the time to create this enterprise. Speaker 1 (10:26) Yeah. So in fact, like even before IIT, from childhood, I was very excited to start my own company. And looking at all the entrepreneurs around, you know, I believe that entrepreneurs are actually nation builders. They create a lot of value, create employment, create infrastructure. Right. And so I was really excited with, you know, becoming very independent, building my own company. I was very excited since school. then after going to college after i getting into iit that time the startup wave in the country was rising there were the mintras and you know flipkarts going up and all started by iitians right so looking at it there is an entrepreneurial vibe in the whole college everybody want to build their own companies so i thought okay you can actually build a company from scratch you know without needing to be very rich but no one Speaker 3 (11:09) thinks of space bro correct Speaker 1 (11:10) that's right so so that bag come i wanted to start some company right that's where it started Then after college I thought I'll just start some company but I had no clue what to do. I checked various ideas, I didn't find anything very exciting like the calling, right? When we have something, when we like something, that calling comes. So that calling did not come straight out of college. So I thought I'll just go with my passion, stick with my passions and deep technology was my passion. And then I was really inspired by ISRO, you know, building its own rockets and launching. Speaker 3 (11:40) What is deep tech? Speaker 1 (11:41) deep technology something like you know rockets robotics you know satellites space ai something extremely deep in technology cutting edge tech right so i want to do it from india and then isro was really really fascinating to me because i saw these launches pslv launches And I was like why not join ISRO and be part of the cutting edge tech being built in the country. Because ISRO is something which is several decades and also we are all celebrating. ISRO went to Mars, Moon, right? This is a phenomenal journey. So ISRO came to campus at IIT. I thought that's it. I am going to join ISRO as a scientist. And then I cracked getting into ISRO and joined ISRO. And like this, like how you, you know. came to our factory. The first day I entered ISRO factory and I was like, it gave me goosebumps. You know, these huge rocket structures being assembled, manufactured. It was like a dream come true for me. This is where I want to work because I was a mechanical engineer and I thought like machines are my passion. And then rockets are the most fascinating machines ever built by humans, most complicated machines. And I want to build there and ISRO gave the opportunity for me. to unleash that passion and then I joined ISRO as a scientist and that's how the journey started. In fact, I wanted to retire at ISRO. Most people who joined ISRO, like you said, they all retire at ISRO. It's a phenomenal place actually. But then this entrepreneurial bug is always at the back of the mind. Speaker 3 (13:08) And Speaker 1 (13:08) then one fine day, like a lightning strike I would say, I got an idea why can't we build a rocket company because there's a lot of international need and India has a great ecosystem and why can't we build it? I got to slow you down. and I want to know about this Speaker 3 (13:22) lightning spark that you felt. Speaker 1 (13:24) How many years were you at Istho for? I was there at Talha, 6 years almost. 6 years? Yeah. Speaker 3 (13:29) And do you think you could have built Skyroot without your time at Istho? Now? Speaker 1 (13:34) Yeah, I think ideally even if it started early it would have been better. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So see, I think entrepreneurship early the better. If I had a chance today I would start straight out of college. But Speaker 3 (13:46) were you mentally equipped enough to start Skyroot? Speaker 1 (13:49) Yeah, so because it's about our mindset. At the start of the college, I didn't get the idea that I can build a rocket. But after looking at it, after being part of it, then we get a confidence that we can build it. So ISRO gave that foundation that already we have that ecosystem. We know that India has the launch pads, India has suppliers, India has talent who has built rockets before. So all this came together, then it became like more, say that it can be done, even though it's out of the box and like you think that it's so difficult to build rockets. But that foundation at ISRO gave me more confidence that you can do something which could not have come straight out of college. But looking back, I think, you know, people, the best companies are built with college dropouts. Right. So earlier, always earlier, the better. Probably I was a bit late, but I started at 27. Speaker 3 (14:41) Wow. Speaker 3 (14:47) With the power of say a great LLM today like a Chad GPT, the latest 5.6 model or like you know deep research mode whatever, can a college student equip themselves with the know-how and instruction manuals to teach themselves deep tech and or start something like a space tech venture like this? Speaker 1 (15:08) Yeah why not, I mean see for example today knowledge has become so easily accessible. Today what I see is that before I get into a meeting, I do full research so that I know a good enough thing so that you can question our team. So there's enough knowledge available put in a very nice format for you to absorb very quickly. You're using an LLM to study? Oh, absolutely. That's Speaker 3 (15:33) my Speaker 1 (15:33) daily routine for me to learn through LLMs. And that keeps me up to speed. Yesterday, Speaker 1 (15:42) For example, in our roles, we don't have much time, too many things to do. And we have very little time to actually study and grow, learn more things. But now with LLMs, with little time, you can learn more. Because it condenses it to exactly what you want. Previously, we used to do so much research. If you remember in college, Google, Google, Google, all learns. It takes like one, two days of research. can be compressed in one hour of very condensed neat research. So that can be utilized. This is really power of LLMs. So for especially for learning and education where people can just exactly put the problems of what they want to learn and the learning pace goes very high. They go into the basic fundamentals, they go talk to people, make the research and start a company. Speaker 3 (16:24) Wow bro. Wow. Yeah. Yes. You were saying something about you every time you go to meet your team, you prepare through the LLM. Speaker 1 (16:31) Yeah, that's because what happens is that, you know, so Generally, they come with a lot of research, and then we have to make a decision. So when we have to make a decision, I should know a good... Learning in that meeting will not be very efficient. So I pre-learn as much as I can, and then come to the meeting, and then I can debate with the team in areas where we don't have that expertise. So that makes us equipped enough to question the team, push them, understand what they're thinking. Is that really what they're telling is right or not? So that we can end up in the right decisions. Speaker 3 (17:13) What's the most fascinating thing about space for you? Speaker 1 (17:18) I think like rocket launching is like the most, that's the reason why we chose rocket launching, right? That's the most glamorous, most exciting, most challenging part of space, because it starts with a rocket launch. Anything you want to put in space, you have to lift off this majestic rocket and then every launch gives that high, which you can't express. In Israel, I was part of a few rocket launches. high of a rocket launch is like an addiction. You know, you want to do more and more launches. Speaker 3 (17:54) Yeah. Can I kind of fast forward your mind to 2050? Yeah. We're in 2026 while we're recording this. Speaker 1 (18:02) Yeah. Speaker 3 (18:03) What is 2050 looking like in your head for you? Speaker 1 (18:06) Yeah. Speaker 3 (18:07) For the Indian space ecosystem? Speaker 1 (18:10) Yeah. And Speaker 3 (18:10) for the global space economy? So it's three questions about 2050. Yeah. Speaker 1 (18:14) Let's begin Speaker 3 (18:15) with you. Speaker 1 (18:15) Yeah, see 2050 we want to be like the de facto, you know, one of the very few companies who regularly launch to space. And right now we're launching satellites, but at that time we'll be launching cargoes to space stations, we'll be launching humans to space, you know, we'll be launching exploratory missions, you know, to Mars, Moon and beyond, right? that's that's the thing that's the power of you know rocket launching when we have that thing very few companies are able to build so you have these uh exciting things to you know launch to space and the launching satellite is only a first step you know so initial step to go there but like launching humans and cargo and exploratory missions deep space missions etc will become very regular at that time and and then we'll be like doing a lot of lot more launches with large bigger rockets And then many of these rockets will be fully reusable. I mean, like they come back, land, then you refill them like aircrafts. So it will be like a future where rockets going to space will become like hopping on to another place on Earth. How easy it is with aircrafts. It will be as easy with spacecrafts Speaker 3 (19:26) in Speaker 1 (19:26) the future. That's the future for us. And space tech ecosystem in India, I think it will flourish. Just to give you an idea, last three to four years, Almost a billion dollar of investment has come on to SpaceX in India. And more than 5000 people, high tech employment has been generated. It's going to become like 10-20 thousand in just few years now. And very high tech. These are like strategic talent pool for the country. You think of it like that. Because this is really exciting complex tech we are building, deep technology we are building which is very strategic to the country and for the world. It's Speaker 3 (20:00) primarily engineers and scientists? Speaker 1 (20:02) Engineers and scientists. and a lot of even manufacturing workforce right so i think it's time for india where we clinch the opportunity for manufacturing which we lost a lot to other countries and something like this high tech building this manufacturing skill set is also very good for example uh this is one of our factory then we have a new factory which was inaugurated by the prime minister last year and to both together we can build one rocket a month today we'll push it even beyond uh in the future and eventually we will get to a level where we can do even a launch a week or even more in few years. So that's the ambition. So for that requires a huge manufacturing workforce as well. We have scientists and engineers who design and who develop things and we have this manufacturing workforce who make these things into designs into reality at scale. So all this is a talent pool which the country needs in a big way. and most of it, services will be global, right? So customers will be mostly global. Pulling money into Speaker 3 (21:00) India because of this. Yeah, Speaker 1 (21:01) that's the great outcome of this. And also, in the time it brings strategic capability within our country in such a deep tech field, you know. For example, if you see, we might say that, you know, we lost the semiconductor bus, which we're now trying to, you know, clinch back, you know. Even AI also, you know, there's a lot more innovation we need to do, robotics, etc. you know, we're not really getting up to the mark. But space is something I think we have a real chance to grow big way in the global arena. And ISRO has also done a lot of demonstrations. We are the first country which landed in the south pole of the moon in the world, first country to reach the Mars orbit in the very first attempt. And then many other achievements and very low resources and budget, right? That shows the potential of India. Now, like once we unlock, now a billion dollar came into the sector now. more billions will come into the sector now and more tens of thousands of people will work into the sector. All this ecosystem which is built is going to be