Axiom Space partners with Indian private company Skyroot for space exploration

Indian Express

2 days ago

On a historic day when the Axiom-4 mission, piloted by Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, lifted off from the US Wednesday, Axiom Space and India's Skyroot Aerospace inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on collaboration in furthering space exploration
The Axiom-4 mission is a collaboration between the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa).
This is the first Indian company Axiom Space has partnered with.
The MoU — signed by Tejpaul Bhatia, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Axiom Space, and Pawan Kumar Chandana, Co-founder and CEO, Skyroot Aerospace — will explore opportunities to improve access to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
'Enabling greater and equitable access to space, be it for research institutes, startups, or national agencies, is the guiding mantra at Skyroot. The partnership with Axiom Space builds an opportunity to explore integrated launch and orbital solutions that will shape humanity's future in space,' said Chandana.
'With our shared vision to transform access to space, we look forward to collaborating with Skyroot to serve the growing space ecosystem in India and globally,' Axiom CEO Bhatia said.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Axiom said it was planning to utilise Skyroot's capabilities for research payloads and orbital data centre nodes, among others.
In 2022, Skyroot became the first Indian private company to successfully launch a sub-orbital class rocket (Vikram-S). Skyroot has developed the commercial rocket, Vikram, and is currently planning the launch of its orbital-class rocket, Vikram-1. This is a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) – a rocket category with lift-off mass up to 500 kg.
Axiom has, so far, launched three commercial space missions and is one of the key partners with Nasa on expanding space exploration.