MANY MINDEDIndia's first private rocket reaches orbit on its debut flight
Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1 rocket lifted off on its inaugural flight on July 18 at 2:35 a.m. Eastern from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, after a 35-minute delay caused by a technical issue found at the five-minute mark. According to the company, it became the first commercial Indian rocket to reach orbit. The mission was named Mission Aagaman, Sanskrit for 'arrival.'
The vehicle used three solid-fuel stages topped by a liquid-propellant kick stage, called the orbit adjustment module, which fired for about six minutes. The upper stage reached a planned 450-kilometer low Earth orbit roughly 15 minutes after liftoff. It carried two cubesats, one from Skyroot and one from Grahaa Space, plus hosted payloads from Dcubed and Cosmoserve Space. Vikram-1 is designed to lift up to 350 kilograms to low orbit, with an upgraded Vikram-1U raising that to 550 kilograms.
More competing launch providers means downward pressure on the cost of putting satellites in orbit, which touches everything from communications to Earth observation and scientific access. A successful debut from a new private entrant widens that field. Skyroot raised $60 million in May to scale Vikram-1 production and develop a larger vehicle, Vikram-2, led by co-founders Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka.
The orbit figures were stated by the company rather than independently confirmed. Skyroot plans a series of test flights before commercial service and said it aims for up to two more Vikram-1 launches this year, though it gave few details. Watch for verified orbital tracking and a commercial manifest.
Source: SpaceNews