Skyroot Aerospace's Dhawan-III engine completed a 145-second static fire test, validating cryogenic methalox propulsion for the upper stage of the Vikram-II rocket. Manufactured in Inconel via 3D printing and producing up to 2.8 kilonewtons of thrust in vacuum, this milestone confirms India's private space sector as a genuine force in the global NewSpace race.
Founded in 2018 by two former ISRO engineers, Skyroot Aerospace has moved fast. Very fast. In less than a decade, the Hyderabad-based startup has gone from a blank sheet to a validated cryogenic engine, a launched rocket, and a ~18,500 m² production campus inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the end of 2025. The Dhawan-III test, confirmed by India Today on March 1, 2026, is not just a technical checkpoint. It signals that India's private aerospace industry has reached a level of maturity that few would have predicted when the country first opened its space sector to private players.
The Dhawan-III engine test marks a cryogenic propulsion milestone
The test lasted 145 seconds. During that window, the Dhawan-III burned a methalox propellant mix — liquid methane combined with liquid oxygen — in a sustained and stable combustion sequence. The engine delivered approximately 2.3 kilonewtons of thrust at sea level and 2.8 kilonewtons in vacuum conditions, the environment it will actually operate in when powering the upper stage of Vikram-II.
One of the most striking visual indicators of the test's success was the appearance of Mach diamonds in the exhaust plume. These characteristic shock wave patterns, formed when exhaust gases exit a nozzle at supersonic speed, are a reliable sign of efficient, controlled combustion. Engineers watching the test could read them as confirmation that the engine's nozzle geometry and combustion chamber pressure were performing within design parameters.
of stable cryogenic combustion during the Dhawan-III static fire test
A 3D-printed Inconel engine designed for reusability
The Dhawan-III is manufactured from Inconel, a nickel-based superalloy capable of withstanding extreme thermal and mechanical stress. What makes the production approach particularly significant is the use of additive manufacturing: key components are printed as single monolithic blocks rather than assembled from multiple parts. Fewer joints mean fewer potential leak points, which directly improves reliability in a cryogenic environment where propellant temperatures drop to around minus 183°C for liquid oxygen.
But the manufacturing logic goes beyond safety margins. Reducing part count also compresses production timelines, a factor that becomes critical as Skyroot aims to reach a cadence of one rocket per month at its Infinity Campus facility. And the choice of methane as a fuel carries its own long-term advantage: unlike kerosene, methane leaves minimal carbon deposits inside the combustion chamber and turbopumps. Less fouling means easier inspection, faster refurbishment, and a more realistic path toward stage reusability, which remains the most effective lever for reducing launch costs.
From Dhawan-I to Dhawan-III: a family of engines taking shape
The Dhawan-III does not exist in isolation. It is the third iteration of a named engine family, each test building on the lessons of the last. Skyroot tested the Dhawan-I in 2021, establishing the foundational methalox combustion architecture. The Dhawan-II followed in 2023, achieving a combustion duration of 200 seconds, longer than the Dhawan-III's current test but serving a different role in the rocket stack. The Dhawan-III, optimized for upper-stage vacuum performance, completes the propulsion suite that will power the Vikram-II and eventually the larger Vikram-III vehicles.
The Dhawan engine family is named after Satish Dhawan, the Indian scientist who directed ISRO during its formative years and oversaw the development of India’s first operational satellite launch vehicles in the 1980s.
Skyroot Aerospace and the rise of India's private space sector
The backdrop against which Skyroot operates matters as much as the engine itself. When Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka left ISRO to co-found Skyroot in 2018, India's space sector was almost entirely state-controlled. The regulatory environment was restrictive, infrastructure was limited to public institutions, and private investment in launch vehicles was essentially nonexistent. The creation of IN-SPACe, the government body tasked with coordinating private sector participation in space activities, changed the equation.
The results have been rapid. More than one hundred space startups are now registered in India, spanning launch vehicles, satellite manufacturing, ground systems, and propulsion. Skyroot itself demonstrated the viability of the model in November 2022, when Vikram-S became the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach space. That suborbital mission was a proof of concept as much as a technical achievement — it showed investors, regulators, and engineers alike that the ecosystem could deliver.
Vikram-II and the path to orbital launch services
The next step is orbital. Vikram-I, the smallest of the Vikram family, is designed to carry approximately 550 kilograms to low Earth orbit. Vikram-II, which the Dhawan-III engine will power at its upper stage, targets a higher performance envelope. Flight tests for Vikram-II are the next major milestone on Skyroot's roadmap, and the successful static fire of the Dhawan-III removes one of the most technically demanding uncertainties from that path.
The Infinity Campus, inaugurated at the end of 2025, provides the industrial backbone for that ambition. At roughly 18,500 m², the facility is designed not as a prototype workshop but as a production environment, built from the ground up to support the monthly cadence that commercial launch services require. The Max-Q Campus, Skyroot's separate design and development center, feeds engineering work upstream of production. Together, the two sites represent an integrated aerospace industrial operation of a kind that simply did not exist in India's private sector seven years ago.
A global small satellite market driving demand for new launchers
Skyroot's timing is not accidental. The market for small satellite launch services is expanding at a pace that creates genuine commercial opportunity for new entrants. As of March 2025, more than 11,800 satellites were active in orbit, with small satellites weighing less than 500 kilograms accounting for approximately 61.5% of that population. The market for these platforms was valued at roughly 6.4 billion euros in 2024, and projections place it at 28 billion euros by 2034.
That growth is structural. Constellations for broadband connectivity, Earth observation, and IoT services are multiplying, and each constellation requires a launch cadence that existing providers cannot always accommodate on competitive timelines. Dedicated small launch vehicles — which can offer schedule certainty, orbital precision, and mission-specific trajectories — fill a gap that rideshare services on larger rockets cannot fully address.
- Minimal carbon deposits — easier engine refurbishment
- Higher specific impulse compared to kerosene in vacuum
- Compatible with reusable engine architectures
- Methane can theoretically be produced on Mars (long-term)
- Cryogenic handling requires complex ground infrastructure
- Lower density than kerosene — larger tank volumes needed
- Relatively fewer flight heritage examples compared to established fuels
The French NewSpace ecosystem as a parallel reference point
India is not alone in building a new generation of private launch capabilities. France has developed a comparable, if differently structured, ecosystem. More than 300 space startups now operate in France, supported by approximately 1.2 billion euros in cumulative investment since 2020 and employing around 5,000 people. The stated ambition is to capture 10% of the global small satellite launch market by 2030, representing roughly 10 billion euros in revenue.
The companies pursuing that goal span a range of technical approaches. Latitude, based in Reims, is developing the Zephyr rocket with a first orbital flight targeted for 2026 and raised 10 million euros in 2023. HyPrSpace, headquartered in Bordeaux, is taking a different technical path with its Baguette One launcher, which uses a hybrid propulsion system, and secured 35 million euros in 2025. The Exploration Company, operating between Munich and France, raised 95 million euros in 2024 for its Pioneer mission, which includes methane propulsion development. Orbital Factory in Toulouse is working on robotized orbital manufacturing facilities and closed a 12 million euro round in 2025. And MaiaSpace, a subsidiary of ArianeGroup based in Vernon, is developing a reusable micro-launcher with a first flight expected before the end of the decade. The CNES and Bpifrance, through the France 2030 program, provide the institutional and financial scaffolding for this ecosystem.
The parallel with India is instructive. Both countries are building private launch capabilities from scratch, within a decade, against a backdrop of established state space agencies. Both are targeting the same expanding small satellite market. And both are making methalox propulsion a central technical bet, recognizing that reusability, enabled by clean-burning methane, is the only credible path to competitive launch economics.
India's aerospace ambitions extend beyond a single engine test
What the Dhawan-III test ultimately represents is a point on a curve, not an endpoint. Skyroot's founders came from ISRO, an organization that produced the Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan missions and that carries the intellectual legacy of Vikram Sarabhai, the physicist who built Indian space science from nothing in the 1960s. That institutional knowledge, combined with the speed and capital efficiency of a startup structure, is what makes Skyroot's progress credible rather than merely aspirational.
The next phase — flight testing Vikram-II with the Dhawan-III engine integrated into the upper stage — will be the real validation. Static fire tests confirm combustion stability and thrust performance in a controlled environment. Flight tests introduce the full complexity of dynamic loads, stage separation, and real-world trajectory management. Skyroot has cleared the propulsion hurdle. The operational one remains ahead.
But the direction is clear. India's private aerospace sector, supported by IN-SPACe and energized by a generation of engineers who grew up watching ISRO land on the Moon, is producing hardware that works. The 145 seconds of the Dhawan-III test are a data point in a much longer story — one that the global launch market is already beginning to take seriously. Just as precision matters in fields as different as nail care techniques or makeup application, the engineering discipline behind cryogenic propulsion leaves no room for approximation — every second of stable combustion is earned, not assumed.
