Vikram-S, India’s first privately developed rocket, successfully lifted off from the spaceport in Sriharikota, some 115 km from Chennai, marking the private sector’s foray into the country’s space industry, dominated by state-owned ISRO for decades. The ‘Prarambh’ (the beginning) mission and the Vikram-S rocket have been developed by Skyroot Aerospace, a Hyderabad-based start-up, with support from ISRO and IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre).
“Mission Prarambh is successfully accomplished. Congratulations,” ISRO announced on Twitter.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who was in Sriharikota to witness the historic launch, said the rocket launch was a turning point for Indian startups.
“We made history today by launching India’s first private rocket. It is a symbol of new India, and just the Prarambh of a great future.” Pawan Kumar Chandana, Co-Founder Skyroot Aerospace, said.
Vikram-S rose to an altitude of 89.5 km after launch and met all the parameters, he said sharing a YouTube link of the rocket. The rocket carried three payloads built by Andhra Pradesh-based N Space Tech India, Chennai-based startup Space Kids, and Armenia’s BazoomQ Space Research Laboratory.
Developed by more than 200 engineers in a record time of two years, Vikram-S is powered by solid fuel propulsion, state-of-the-art avionics and a carbon fiber core structure. The launch of the rocket will help test and validate most of the technologies on the Vikram series of orbital-class space launch vehicles, including many subsystems and technologies that will be tested in the pre-launch and post-launch phases, according to Skyroot Aerospace.