New Delhi, July 19 -- SRIHARIKOTA - Eight years after Pawan Kumar Chandana and Bharath Daka founded Skyroot Aerospace with a government grant and a conviction that India's space sector was ready to privatize, their Vikram-1 rocket lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Saturday, climbed to 450 kilometers, and reached low-Earth orbit. India became the third country - after the United States and China - to achieve orbital launch through a private company.

The flight lasted long enough to validate propulsion, avionics, telemetry, guidance, navigation and control systems on a single mission. "Hello space, we have arrived!" the company posted on its official social media account as confirmation came in from mission control. Each of tho...