One of India’s first private rocket companies is aiming to reduce satellite prices.

The founders of Skyroot Aerospace, the company responsible for India’s first private space launch, recently spoke with Reuters about their plans to launch a satellite into orbit in 2023 at a fraction of the price of more established launch companies.

The $68 million will be used to fund the company’s next two launches, according to the Hyderabad-based company, which has the backing of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC. Skyroot claims to have spoken with over 400 prospective clients.

As businesses expand their networks to provide services like SpaceX’s Starlink’s broadband access and to fuel applications like supply chain tracking and offshore oil rig monitoring, thousands of small satellite launches are scheduled for the coming years.

Established and emerging rocket launch competitors, each with their own plans to lower prices, pose a threat to Skyroot. Chinese start-up Galactic Energy successfully launched five satellites into orbit last week, marking the company’s fourth such mission.

By the middle of the decade, the Japanese company Space One, backed by Canon Electronics and IHI Corp, aims to launch 20 small rockets annually.

However, Skyroot, which just last week launched a test rocket, claims to be able to reduce launch costs by half compared to more well-known competitors like Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab USA of California.

One of Skyroot’s two founders, Pawan Chandana, told Reuters that he anticipated a surge in demand for the company’s launch services if the launches scheduled for next year go as planned.

It was stated that “most of these customers have been building constellations and will be launching them in the next five years.”

Investors are confident in Skyroot and other startups because of the Modi government’s push to increase India’s share of the global space launch market from 1% to 5%, according to Skyroot.

Skyroot co-founder Bharath Daka told Reuters, “one of the biggest questions they asked was if the government was supporting us.” This was three or four months ago.

With a new agency and streamlined regulations in place, India will welcome private space companies in 2020.

Previously, businesses were restricted to providing services exclusively to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a government space agency with a reputation for cost-effective engineering of its own. Costing less than the production budget of the 2014 Hollywood space movie “Gravity,” the country’s Mars mission was a huge success.

Chandana emphasized the importance of continuing India’s track record of low costs. When founders Chandana and Daka left their jobs at ISRO in 2018, they established Skyroot with the goal of developing rockets at a fifth of the current industry costs.

The Skyroot rocket that reached 89.5 kilometres altitude in last week’s test launch used carbon-fibre components and 3D-printed parts, including the thrusters. That boosted efficiency by 30%, the company says, cutting weight and procurement costs, although it meant Skryoot engineers had to write the machine code for vendors who fabricated the rocket because few had experience working with carbon fibre.

With 3D printing, Skyroot believes it can build a new rocket in just two days as it works towards reusable rockets, a technology pioneered by SpaceX.

Chandana and Daka believe the per-kilogram launch cost for a satellite can be brought down to nearly $10, from thousands of dollars currently, a stretch target that could upend the economics of space commerce and one that draws inspiration from their idol: Elon Musk.

“SpaceX is a symbol of great innovation and great market validation,” said Chandana, who added they have not had the chance to speak to Musk.

“Right now, we think he’s probably busy running Twitter.”