00:00The Vikram-1 took off from Sriharikota over the weekend, reaching its planned orbit 15 minutes
00:06later and then successfully deploying all four payloads. This is the biggest accomplishment for
00:11a private sector firm in the industry after the government allowed companies to build and launch
00:16rockets more than three years ago. And we're now joined by Skyroot Aerospace's co-founder and COO
00:23Nagar Bharath Dhaka. Bharath, thank you so much for your time today. Can you just start by giving
00:28us a sense of the mood at Skyroot at the moment? I imagine you're experiencing tremendous
00:33satisfaction right now. Yes, indeed. Like, not just as all our team are still on cloud nine,
00:41we have yet to get back into the reality. It was truly a surreal experience from liftoff
00:48to the orbital injection. Things going as planned, every milestone of uncertainty, every stage
00:55separation that always gives some anxiety has gone through like a textbook launch, we call.
01:03And it was truly a great experience for all our team who has put their sweat and blood through
01:08this and seen this milestone become a reality. Yeah, it is incredibly difficult to get to orbit.
01:16We've seen so many other space companies have very dramatic explosions on their way there.
01:22So a number of key milestones ticked off for you. But the main question is, what's next? Where are you
01:28heading from here?
01:31Yeah. As you rightly pointed out, Paul, getting to orbit is one of the most difficult milestones in any launch
01:38company's journey.
01:39And we are very fortunate to reach this milestone in our very first attempt. And the next big challenge and
01:45an equally tough challenge is the ability to repeatedly do the same, ability to repeatedly produce and ability to
01:51repeatedly achieve the orbit in our subsequent missions. So our full focus for the next one year would be able
01:57to
01:59make Vikram 1 the workhorse commercial small dedicated launch vehicle from India to the world.
02:07Well, the Vikram 1 is, of course, fully expandable. I'm wondering how that means costs compared to some
02:13of your global competitors who either have reusable rockets or partially reusable rockets or are working
02:19towards that. Can you be competitive with an expandable rocket? And how are you working towards reusability?
02:29So in the in the domain of the small dedicated launch vehicle space, it is it is a niche market
02:36in itself. And the expandability is generally the way to go in the small dedicated launch segment. And the reusability
02:44makes more sense if you try to build medium
02:47to able lift launch vehicles and with a bigger cargo capacity. And as you know, like Rocket Lab's Electron operates
02:54in the space of small dedicated launch segment, because there's always a niche requirement to go to just to give
03:01you an example, the space is not a single destination. And there are always applications, there are always geographies, there
03:06are always nations who needs to go to very specific orbits. And to those specific orbits, they won't find companion
03:12travelers easily. And so the niche of small
03:17dedicated launch will always perpetually remain and Vikraman is going to operate in that domain.
03:24It's also very desirable for local payload manufacturers, satellite manufacturers as well to have domestic launch capability. It means they
03:31don't have to launch these fragile and delicate payloads onto a ship and send them elsewhere in the world. So
03:36can you give us a sense of how some of your customers are helping support your development and where else
03:42you're getting funding from?
03:46Sure. So like all our customer base is very happy because as you know, space industry is a global market
03:52by definition and everyone is keenly watching on our progress and on our milestones. And because most of the satellite
03:59operators want their launch manifest distributed among, they want to distribute their eggs into multiple baskets.
04:06And having one more reliable and cost effective player coming into operational domain is very much an exciting use for
04:17the satellite operators around the world. We've been in good touch with players around the world, not just in US
04:22and Europe, but Asia Pacific.
04:23Especially in Asia Pacific, people, the nations and the satellite applications are very peculiar orbital inclination requirements. And they have
04:33been very big users of small dedicated launches around the world.
04:38And we'll be able to cater to them in a much more profound way because even their satellite construction deployment
04:48plans are going to ramp up for the next few years. And we are here and achieved our milestone and
04:53our operation station in the very right time is what we feel.
04:56And with respect to investors, we are highly grateful for foreign investors. Like we've been backed by Singapore's GIC and
05:04Temesic are one of the few key institutional investors. And the board member of Alphabet, Ramshiram's Shareflow Ventures also are
05:14one of the key early backers, but also in the recent funding round, even they have participated.
05:20So we have good faith and good long-term high gestation or long-term thinking investment in our cap table.
05:31And that gives us the strong muzzle to execute in the pace we did. And we will be able to
05:36execute with their support over the years to come.
05:39Of course, your investors will eventually want to see some sort of return on their investments. How long do you
05:45think it would be before you reach profitability?
05:47And what kind of launch cadence do you need to get there?
05:52So we are like, just to give you, like, we are extremely cost effective in our developmental costs. Like we
06:01reached, like as a company, like spending just in less than, like 50 to 100 million spend, we reached this
06:10orbital launch milestone.
06:11Our developmental expenditure has been extremely low, thanks to the Indian space reforms, which allowed us to use the public
06:18infrastructure available in the ISRO ecosystem, so that we need not invest in capital infrastructure that is required for the
06:28development of the rocket, thereby saving us cost.
06:30We need to spend most of the development of the capital expenditure for OPEX than the CAPEX. And that is
06:37a huge, because of that, just achieving five to six launches per year will make us break even and we'll
06:44be pat positive.
06:46Achieving just the economic, including the amortization of the development of the capital expenditure, as you speak. And that's, that's
06:59one of the very, very unique position that we from India are positioned in, is the advantage of it.
Comments