India's Skyroot launches Vikram-1 in first private orbital rocket mission

India’s Skyroot Aerospace has launched Vikram-1, marking the country’s first privately developed orbital rocket mission and a notable step in its push to expand in the global commercial launch market.

The rocket lifted off on Saturday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 0635 GMT, sending a plume of fire and smoke into the sky as it carried customer payloads and in-orbit experiments on its maiden orbital flight, called Mission Aagaman. Roughly 15 minutes later, the mission successfully placed its payload into a 450-kilometre orbit, according to the feed report.

The launch had originally been scheduled for 0600 GMT but was briefly put on hold before being rescheduled. Skyroot said the test flight was designed to check the rocket’s propulsion, avionics, telemetry, guidance, navigation and control systems while also gathering data for future commercial launches.

“Mission Aagaman is a grand success,” the company said in a statement quoted in the monitored public feed. It also described the launch as a test flight and said several more such missions would be needed before routine commercial operations begin.

The achievement makes India the third country to reach orbital launch capability through private enterprise, the feed report said. Skyroot’s success comes after its earlier Vikram-S mission in 2022, which became the first privately developed rocket to reach space from Indian soil on a suborbital flight.

Founded in 2018 and based in Hyderabad, Skyroot is part of a newer generation of Indian space companies that have gained investor backing since the sector was opened to private participation in 2020. The liberalisation allowed startups to build rockets, satellites and launch services in areas that had long been dominated by the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation.

Vikram-1 stands about 22 metres tall and is designed to carry payloads of up to 350 kilograms into low-Earth orbit. The company says the launch vehicle uses three solid-fuel stages and a liquid-fuel orbital adjustment module powered by a 3D-printed engine, technologies it says are being flown for the first time in India.

The rocket is carrying multiple experimental and customer payloads from Indian and overseas organisations, including technology demonstration satellites and in-orbit experiments. The mission also comes amid growing competition in the small satellite launch market, where private companies are aiming to challenge established players such as SpaceX.

Governments in Europe and Asia have also been supporting domestic launch firms as they seek more secure access to space for commercial and defence needs. India, meanwhile, has set a target of growing its share of the global space economy to $44 billion by 2033, up from about $8 billion now.

This report is based on a monitored public feed. Source attribution: Dawn Tech.

Source: Dawn Tech - https://www.dawn.com/news/2016450/indias-skyroot-launches-vikram-1-in-first-private-orbital-rocket-mission