Desi SpaceX? These Start-Ups Are All Fired Up
The Times of India Hyderabad|September 15, 2020
Govt’s green light to private sector and venture capital funding gives wing to dreams of space entrepreneurs
Chethan.Kumar
Desi SpaceX? These Start-Ups Are All Fired Up

While most of us just yearned to leave the house in May, Elon Musk’s SpaceX made history by launching astronauts into orbit from US soil. One small step for man, but quite a giant leap for the private space industry. Musk isn’t the only businessman with big dreams; Jeff Bezos has Blue Origin; Richard Branson has Virgin Orbit.

And now a bunch of Indian entrepreneurs look to be Musks in the making. Incidentally, Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal, both only 22, say they were inspired by a trip to the SpaceX headquarters in 2017. The two BITS-Pilani students had become the Asian finalists for the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition and travelled to California for the final challenge. “While we had gained some experience in building hardware as part of multiple competitions, our visit to the SpaceX headquarters gave us the confidence to launch Pixxel the next year,” says Ahmed, who also got to meet Musk personally.

Earlier this month, Pixxel raised $5m, which it plans to use to put in space 24 small satellites.

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