Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace to launch India’s first privately developed rocket next week

Vikram-S – is set for a launch between November 12 and 16, Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace announced.

Hyderabad: India’s first privately developed rocket – Vikram-S – is set for a launch between November 12 and 16, Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace announced.

The maiden mission of Skyroot Aerospace, named ‘Prarambh’ (the beginning), will carry three customer payloads and is set for launch from Indian Space Research Organisation’s launchpad at Sriharikota.

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“A launch window between November 12 and 16 has been notified by authorities, the final date being confirmed based on weather conditions,” said reports quoting Skyroot Aerospace CEO and co-founder Pawan Kumar Chandana.

“Thrilled to announce #Prarambh, our maiden launch mission, also the first for the Indian private space sector, with a launch window between 12-16 Nov ’22. Thanks to Chairman @isro for unveiling our mission patch and @INSPACeIND for all the support,” the company tweeted.

With this, Skyroot Aerospace is set to become the first private space company in India to launch a rocket into space. The space sector was opened up in 2020 to facilitate private sector participation.

The Vikram-S rocket is a single-stage sub-orbital launch vehicle which would carry three customer payloads and help test and validate the majority of the technologies in the Vikram series of space launch vehicles.

Skyroot said it could build and get the Vikram-S rocket mission-ready in a short time due to the support from ISRO and IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre).

Skyroot’s launch vehicles are named ‘Vikram’ as a tribute to the founder of the Indian space programme and renowned scientist Vikram Sarabhai.

Based in Hyderabad, Skyroot, which is the first private Indian company to design, build and test a solid rocket propulsion stage, completed a full-duration test of the rocket’s third stage earlier this year.

The third stage, named Kalam-100 after Indian rocket scientist and former President APJ Abdul Kalam, is just one part of the company’s debut rocket.

Vikram is designed to carry up to 480 kilograms to low-inclination orbits. It can be assembled and launched from any launch site within 24 hours.

Skyroot Aerospace successfully raised $51 million or Rs 403 crore through a Series-B financing round, in September this year. Led by the Singapore-headquartered long-term investment firm GIC, this makes it the largest funding round ever in India’s space technology sector by far.