New Delhi, July 20 -- Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace has broken new ground in India's space industry. Its Vikram-1 rocket reached orbit and deployed its payloads on its first attempt-a feat that eluded SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Astra and Firefly on their own maiden flights.

Skyroot's success places India among a trio of countries with a notable private presence in the great beyond, the US and China being the other two. Till 2020, the sector was under the monopoly of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), whose trail of wins has been stellar.

Its Mangalyaan reached Mars orbit on its first try, Chandrayaan-3 made India the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon (the first near its south-polar region) and Aditya-L1 is studying the Sun fr...