Why did I start Comet Aerospace?

Short answer → I always wanted to do it. Born this way.

Want long answer? Read on...

PART 1

I used to watch a lot of NatGeo and Discovery channel when I was a kid, it's one of the earliest memories I have. One day I saw a space shuttle launch on TV, and the fact that you can go to space and come back was fascinating.

So I did some digging and found out that there is this company called "NASA" where you can go and do this stuff.

Emails would not really accessible to children at the time, and I think I was too young to know what they were anyways, so I ended up writing a physical letter to NASA. You know how in school they teach you to write "letters to the editor" in english subject? Same.

I fought with my dad to post that letter, but he kept telling mom that I never study and waste time on all this. Then after using my "you don't love me" card I finally convinced him to post my letter. A long time passed, and we never heard back. So I was dejected and sad and gave up.

Finally, one day, we actually heard back from NASA.

They had basically told me to "F**** off". They said that people from outside US are not really allowed to work in aerospace sector in US, and that I should go and work in the Indian space agency.

I was a bit traumatized to hear it, but continued to watch this stuff from afar.

PART 2

Fast forward to 10th standard, the school was asking us whether I wanted to take science, commerce or arts. Then a friend of mine told me that if I wanted to continue to study science after school, then it would be a problem since there are hardly any places in India where proper science is taught, and the only way to do that was to get into this place called IIT.

But then I learnt that IIT's were impossible to get into, and I got really sacred that I would never get to study science properly. My dad enrolled in this coaching centre called VMC, since my sister went there too.

Within 1 month, I got to see who my competition was i.e. other students in VMC, and concluded that there is no way I can get into IIT. So I made DTU, NSIT, NIT as my target. But then I learnt that none of these institutes have a good aerospace department and that IIT's were my only choice. So I gave everything I had to IIT prep for two years.

After JEE results, my dad wanted me to go to IIT Delhi since it was close to home, but Delhi did not have an aerospace department. So I was fighting with my dad that I want to go to IIT B or K.

But my dad said that I would have a hard time surviving in these cities since I have never lived away from home. To make this point, he took me to visit BITS Pilani. If you have grown up in a big city like Delhi, and always lived in a protected environment, the road to BITS Pilani will scare the shit out of out. It did mine, so I accepted IIT Delhi, to study chemical engineering.

Chemical and Aerospace are slightly overlapping fields in the sense that both study fluid mechanics deeply. I got a fluid mechanics research internship in my 2nd year in London, but at the end of the intern, I realised that research was not the right path forward.

I spent the next few semesters figuring things out...

Then I was graduating and had realised that the path forward for me was to start a company, I thought about starting in aerospace, but tbh found the problem too big to take on.

After several years, when I stared to have some spare cash, I started to put most of that into research for missile engine development. We kept making slow but steady progress.

Then, after the acquisition of my company Electron in 2025, I felt I was finally in a position to attempt this big a problem in life.