Pawan Kumar Chandana Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Pawan Kumar Chandana

• Pawan Kumar Chandana is the co-founder, CEO, and CTO (chief technology officer) of Skyroot Aerospace, a private launch vehicles manufacturing company.
  

  Logo of Skyroot Aerospace

• He used to work as an aerospace scientist at ISRO.

• He began to work as a scientist at the rocket design centre (VSSC) at ISRO in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India in September 2012. When he was working at ISRO, he spent five years making one of the biggest and heaviest launch vehicles produced in India named GSLV Mk-II rocket. He worked as a system engineer for S200, which was the booster rocket for GSLV Mk-3. Before he left ISRO in June 2018, he was appointed as the Deputy Project Manager of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).

• On 12 June 2018, he co-founded Skyroot Aerospace in Hyderabad, India in partnership with Naga Bharath Daka, a former ISRO scientist.
  

  Founders of Skyroot Aerospace, Pawan Kuma Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka

  They founded the company with the help of Vasudevan Gnana Gandhi, an Indian rocket scientist, founders of CureFit Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagor, and some other entrepreneurs.

• On 20 November 2020, Skyroot Aerospace signed a memorandum with Dhruva Space, an aerospace manufacturer in India.

• On 20 May 2021, Skyroot Aerospace raised $11 million in the Series A funding round with the participation of the contribution of Greenko Group, Solar Industries, the chief business officer of Whatsapp Neeraj Arora, founder of Myntra and Cult.fit Mukesh Bansal, Sutton Capital, Vedanshu Investments, and more.

• In September 2021, after signing an agreement with the Department of Space of ISRO, Skyroot Aerospace became the first Indian start-up to access the facilities and expertise of ISRO, and the company can test its systems and sub-systems of carrier rockets. ^[2]Skyroot Aerospace

• On 27 January 2022, Sherpalo Ventures of Ram Shriram, who is Google’s founding board member, ex-Google executive Amit Singhal, Wami Capital, and some others contributed to Skyroot Aerospace’s $4.5 million in Series B fundraising round.

• Skyroot Aerospace test-fired Raman-1, a hypergolic-fuel upper-stage engine, on 30 July 2020. They named the engine Raman to honour the Indian physicist C. V. Raman. After the testing of Raman-1, Skyroot Aerospace became the first Indian private company to test this kind of engine.

 

• On 22 December 2020, Skyroot Aerospace tested a solid-fuel rocket engine named Kalam-5. The testing took place in a private testing facility in Nagpur, which was owned by Solar Industries. They named the rocket engine after A. P. J. Kalam and 5 in the name Kalam-5 stands for peak sea level thrust of 5.3 kN.

 

• In May 2022, Skyroot Aerospace successfully completed a full-duration test-firing of Kalam-100, Vikram-1’s rocket stage. Kalam-100 can produce a peak vacuum thrust of 100 kN (or ~10 Tons) and consists of a burn time of 108 sec. Kalam-100 is built of high-strength carbon fibre structure, solid fuel, novel thermal protection system, and carbon ablative nozzle. According to media reports of 2022, Kalam-100 was the largest rocket stage, which was designed, manufactured, and tested by a private company.

 

• On 25 November 2021, Dhawan-1, an upper-stage cryogenic engine, was tested successfully on a private test site provided by Solar Industries. Dhawan-1 was tested using liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquid oxygen (LOX). It was made using 3D printing with regenerative cooling using superalloys. It was created to power heavier-lift systems including Vikram-II. Dhawan-1 was named to honour Satish Dhawan, an Indian mathematician and aerospace engineer. Dhawan-1 used liquefied natural gas (LNG), which made it the first cryogenic engine in India to use such fuel. LNG was used as a fuel as it is clean, reusable, and well-suited for space missions that are of long duration.

We're thrilled to announce, in a major milestone, we successfully test fired India's first privately built fully Cryogenic Engine 'Dhawan-1'

100% 3D-Printed
100% Made in India
Fuel of the future- LNG

Checkout the footage: https://t.co/zffy4ti2Lj#Methalox pic.twitter.com/ktKGAs9o7n

— Skyroot Aerospace (@SkyrootA) November 25, 2021

• In 2020, Skyroot Aerospace began working on its series of small-lift launch vehicles named Vikram, which was named after the Indian physicist, astronomer, and founder of ISRO Vikram Sarabhai. Skyroot Aerospace joined hands with Bellatrix Aerospace in February 2021 to use the orbital transfer vehicle of Bellatrix Aerospace with carrier rockets of the Vikram series. In an interview, when he was asked about how the Vikram series is different from other small satellite launch vehicles, he replied,
  

  It is the simplicity of the rocket. It is a simple rocket that can be manufactured, assembled, and launched very fast. Then there is the cost. It will be much cheaper than other rockets in similar segments in the international market.” ^[3]Instagram – Skyroot Aerospace

• The first launch vehicle of the Vikram series was Vikram-S. On 18 November 2022, Skyroot Aerospace successfully launched Vikram-S from Sriharikota, which became the first rocket to be launched by a private company in India.

Team Skyroot dedicates today’s historic success of India’s first private rocket launch to the space reforms brought in by the vision of Hon’ Prime Minister @narendramodi ji.

We thank @isro and @INSPACeIND for their invaluable support towards this landmark milestone.#Prarambh pic.twitter.com/sbpbcI1s0T

— Skyroot Aerospace (@SkyrootA) November 18, 2022

• The second launch vehicle of the Vikram series is Vikram I. Vikram I requires minimal range infrastructure and can be assembled and launched hours from any launch site within 24. The third launch vehicle of the series is Vikram II, which is made up of an advanced cryogenic Methalox engine. Vikram III is the fourth launch vehicle of the series, which can be assembled and launched from any launch site within 72 hours. ^[4]Skyroot Aerospace
  

  Picture of Vikram I, Vikram II, and Vikram III

• In September 2021, Skyroot Aerospace was ranked 7th among the top 25 emerging companies in India on Linkedin’s 2021 Top Startups List.
  

  Skyroot Aerospace team

• In 2022, Pawan Kumar Chandana was listed among India Today’s top 100 Young Achievers and was also featured on the cover of India Today magazine.
  

  Pawan Kumar Chandana on the cover of India Today magazine in 2022

• In an interview, while talking about how he selected got selected by ISRO, he said,
  

  Without any thought, I attended the interview and luckily got selected. I was fortunate to get in despite a comparatively low academic performance—the three others chosen were among the batch toppers.” ^[5]India Today

• Reportedly, Pawan Kumar Chandana is also known as Elon Musk of India. ^[6]Brahmastra Space

• He is skilled in many software and hardware technologies including Abaqus, AutoCAD, Modeling, ANSYS, Matlab, Catia, and more.

• He gave a TEDx speech on the subject “Space Colonization – The future of humanity” in July 2019. He gave another TEDx speech in December 2019 on the subject “Not Passion, Obsession is the key.”
  

  Pawan Kumar Chandan giving a TEDx speech in December 2019

• In an interview, when Pawan Kumar Chandana was asked about future plans and the ultimate goal of Skyroot Aerospace, he replied,
  

  The toughest problem to be solved in the next decade is to reduce the cost of launching satellites or humans to space. This is where we are focusing. once cost drops drastically, it will open new frontiers for space-based services. ^[7]The Times of India The goal is to create a space-based economy. Today, we have an earth-based economy. We feel that resources are only available on earth, and that is because we cannot go to space at a very low cost. In the long run, we want space flights to be as cheap as air flights so that anybody can go to space. Either for space tourism or to utilise the resources there. Space has plenty of planets, comets, asteroids, and a lot of metals and resources readily available. Going to space becomes easier when it becomes existential. We can create a space-based economy where human beings can travel and live. Expanding humanity out into space is the ultimate goal.” ^[8]Instagram – Skyroot Aerospace