On August 23, 2025, the Astro Club reached out to the English Press Club on the occasion of National Space Day. Arnav Garg, the project lead for Skywalker, was interviewed to gain insights into the rocket developed by the club last semester. He began by stating that Skywalker was entirely made and assembled by students, and achieved a height of 2,816 meters in the test run. He added that it was also among the first rockets in India to cross Mach 1, despite the budget-friendly nature of the motors.

He explained that there were three main objectives for the launch: the rocket was meant to be fast (fast enough to break the sonic barrier), retrieve important information (the flight computer and DOSA, both of which were built from scratch), and return in one piece (achieved via a dual-stage deployment system). He noted that their original plan was to first perform a test launch and then conduct the main launch during APOGEE 2025. 

According to him, shortly before they were to proceed with the test launch, they realised that the avionics were faulty. So, with limited time, they had to either proceed with the launch in that state or call it off until it was fixed. They eventually chose the former, he said.

According to Arnav, the initial calculations made them assume that the rocket would not land very far away from the launch site, but the unprecedented winds led the rocket to fall in one of the villages near Pilani. 

He highlighted the fact that the locals were scared of an unusual object painted red and black suddenly falling from the sky, so they immediately clocked it as a bomb of some kind. He stated that the club had to take the help of local authorities and the BITS administration to retrieve the rocket, which was followed by the club’s president at the time giving an interview to one of the local news channels that showed up on the scene.

He mentioned that they intend to launch the rocket again this year during the even semester, but its successful launch was up for debate. They have decided to implement a no-compromise policy with respect to all of the testing and will focus more on the technical side of things, choosing not to proceed with the ‘caveman approach of more fuel, more height’. He added that they are also emphasising safety by increasing the distance between people and the launch site, and are planning to develop a method for remote ignition. According to Arnav, the priorities of the club lie in knowledge transfer and technical advancement. 

With the sun setting on National Space Day, 2025, Arnav’s last words echoed as the interview ended — ‘Space is beautiful and perhaps the closest humanity will ever get to God. We should all stare out into space and absorb its beauty. One does not need technical equipment or too many specifics to simply aim for the sky. Even if you are not very familiar with space, today is as good a day as any to start looking.’