Naga Bharath Daka

Naga Bharath Daka is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Skyroot Aerospace.

Journey

Daka studied electrical engineering at IIT Madras and worked at ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. His work included avionics and flight-computer systems for launch vehicles. That experience was important to a company attempting to integrate propulsion, structures, guidance, electronics and ground operations under private-sector timelines.

Daka co-founded Skyroot with Pawan Kumar Chandana in 2018 after India began creating a larger role for private space companies. As COO, he has been closely involved in engineering execution, programme management and the coordination required to take the Vikram launch vehicles from design through testing and flight. Skyroot flew the Vikram-S suborbital mission in 2022 and continued development of orbital launch vehicles for commercial satellite customers.

Working approach

His public role is operational and systems-oriented. Aerospace programmes punish weak interfaces, so his work centres on disciplined testing, configuration control and coordination across teams rather than isolated technical achievements.

Assessment

Daka supplies the execution and avionics depth that complements Chandana's external leadership. His contribution will ultimately be measured by whether Skyroot can turn prototypes into a reliable launch service with predictable schedules and safe, repeatable missions.