Chandana (centre) with business partner Bharath Daka (left) being briefed on operations by employees as engineers (top) work on a rocket at the Skyroot Aerospace facility in Hyderabad, India. — Photos: ©2023 The New York Times Company
WHEN it launched its first rocket in 1963, India was a poor country pursuing the world’s most cutting-edge technology. That projectile, its nose cone wheeled to the launchpad by a bicycle, put a small payload 200km above the Earth.
India was barely pretending to keep up with the United States and the Soviet Union. In today’s space race, it has found much surer footing.
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