Skyroot's Vikram-1 hits orbit on its first attempt

Skyroot's Vikram-1 reached a roughly 450 km orbit on its debut flight, a rare first-try success for a privately built rocket.

Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1 has become India's first fully commercial, privately built satellite launcher to reach orbit — and it did so on its debut flight. The rocket lifted off Saturday at 06:35 UTC from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island, after a delay of more than half an hour to fix a last-minute technical problem. US military tracking data confirmed it arrived in a roughly 280-mile (450 km) orbit at 60 degrees inclination.

The vehicle stands about 72 feet (22 meters) tall and can carry up to 770 pounds (350 kg) to low-Earth orbit, making it slightly larger than Rocket Lab's Electron. It fired three solid-fueled stages in succession, then a liquid-fueled fourth stage with a 3D-printed engine that pushed the payload to about 17,000 mph. Reaching orbit on a first attempt is uncommon: SpaceX needed four tries with Falcon 1, and Rocket Lab's Electron failed on its first flight.

For access to space, a second Indian provider that is private and commercial matters. More launch capacity — especially from a company targeting frequent, lower-cost flights — tends to pull the price of putting a satellite up downward and widens who can afford orbit. Skyroot's roadmap points that way, with a boosted Vikram-1U and a cryogenic-stage Vikram-2 aimed at 2,000 pounds (900 kg) to low-Earth orbit.

Keep the success in proportion. The company's stated goal for this flight was only to clear the tower and gather ascent data, and one oddity appeared — the spent third stage seemed to linger near the fourth rather than falling away. Skyroot also says its longer-term ambition, large reusable liquid-fueled rockets, will need substantially more funding. ISRO backed the debut with casting and test facilities and a launch pad at Sriharikota.

Source: Ars Technica