From Musk's Hyperloop Contest to Orbit: IIT Madras Team's Seven-Year Journey
SumitGup · x · 2026-09-20
In 2019, the 40-member Avishkar Hyperloop team from IIT Madras was the only Asian finalist among 1,600+ teams in Elon Musk's hyperloop competition. Seven years later, their satellite reached orbit on a SpaceX rocket. Five members went on to found a startup, ditching an electric-propulsion launch idea (a 40-km angled tube proved infeasible) before finding their real direction in a US consulting project assessing California wildfire damage from satellite imagery.
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