Who is Pawan Kumar Chandana? Left ISRO job to take on Elon Musk’s BIG business, to soon launch India’s first…, he now has Rs 92265000000…

He joined ISRO in 2012, driven by his strong interest in rockets and exploring space. However, Chandana soon decided he actually wanted to establish a global space technology business.

Pawan Kumar Chandana, an Indian aerospace entrepreneur and former scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is now one of the most significant people in India’s private space sector. He co-founded and is the CEO of Skyroot Aerospace, a space technology startup based in Hyderabad, which is getting ready to launch Vikram-1, the first orbital rocket built by a private company in India.

Skyroot, established in 2018, is focused on making satellite launches quicker and more cost-effective. Currently valued at approximately $527 million (Rs 9,226 crore), the company is quickly becoming one of the most exciting private space enterprises in the country.

Chandana was brought up in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Interestingly, he struggled with mathematics at school, once only managing to score 51 out of 100 in the subject. Despite this early difficulty, he passed the IIT entrance examination on his first try in 2007 and went on to study mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.