Indian spacetech startups hail SpaceX's historic feat, say it will forever change space accessibility

Elon Musk's SpaceX achieved a historic feat on October 13

Indian space tech startups have hailed Elon Musk-owned SpaceX's historic milestone on October 13, saying that it will forever change access to space.

In an unprecedented feat, SpaceX successfully caught the first stage of its Super Heavy booster of its Starship rocket using a pair of giant "mechazilla" mechanical arms during the fifth test flight, minutes after the rocket blasted off from the company's Boca Chica facility in Texas, United States.

This development marks a significant leap in SpaceX's quest to develop fully reusable space vehicles for its ambitious moon and Mars missions.

"Orbital Rocketry as we know it has changed since yesterday given the successful mechazilla catch. We have now moved on to “rapid reusability” from just “reusability”," said Srinath Ravichandran, chief executive of spacetech startup Agnikul Cosmos.

Ravichandran said this achievement marks the beginning of a journey of using space flight for transportation at the pace of rapid ground transportation.

Read: From Falcon 1 to Starship: A timeline of SpaceX's achievements

In May, Agnikul Cosmos successfully launched the Agnibaan SOrTeD rocket from Sriharikota. Agnibaan SorTED (suborbital technology demonstrator), is a suborbital rocket, which means that such launch vehicles may go into space, but then their path (or trajectory) carries them back to the earth.

Bellatrix Aerospace co-founder Rohan Ganapathy said that recovering a super-heavy booster weighing several hundred tons, descending from that altitude at a significant velocity, is a huge accomplishment.

"Starship is a technology that puts us closer to a space civilisation," he said.

Pawan Kumar Chandana, CEO of spacetech firm Skyroot Aerospace, also said that this move is another leap forward in spaceflight, enabling rapidly reusable launch vehicles.

"This also has potential to boost the reliability of landing, making launches more dependable for regular transportation to space and back," he said.

Skyroot Aerospace had successfully test-fired the Stage-2 of Vikram-1 space launch vehicle, called Kalam-250 from Sriharikota in March 2024.

Ganapathy said that other countries will likely look to emulate this feat soon. "China already has a similar rocket on the drawing board. Many other applications will open up globally now," he said.