Indian startup Skyroot joins Chinese and American private companies in the race to launch satellites in low orbit.

Indian space officials celebrated the debut flight of, India’s first fully commercial satellite launcher, as a “grand success” Saturday after an on-target climb into a 280-mile-high orbit following liftoff from an island spaceport in the Bay of Bengal.

China has successfully launched a Gravity-1 rocket carrying nine satellites into orbit from waters near Shanghai, according to Xinhua, marking another step in the country’s expanding commercial space launch program.

In 2022, India beat long-time spacefarers Russia to become the 3rd nation to see a privately designed and built rocket successfully reach space. Now just 4 years later, and the Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace has outdone itself.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 Starlink satellites launched from California on Tuesday (July 21), a day after aborting its first liftoff attempt.