India’s First Secretly Developed Rocket Vikram-S will be launched on November 15
India’s first privately-built rocket – the Vikram-S – will be launched on November 15 in a sub-orbital mission with three payloads, Hyderabad-based space launcher Skyroot Aerospace announced on Tuesday.
Skyroot Aerospace’s first mission, named ‘Prarambh’ (initially), will carry payloads for two Indian and one foreign customer and will be launched at the launch pad of the Indian Space Research Organization in Sriharikota.
“The heartbeat is fast. All eyes are on the sky. The world is listening. Everything points to November 15, 2022 for the launch,” Skyspace Aerospace said on Friday.
The launch is scheduled for 11:30 am, Skyroot Aerospace CEO and founder Pawan Kumar Chandana told PTI.
Spacekidz, a Chennai-based spaceflight startup, will fly ‘Fun-Sat’, a 2.5kg payload developed by students from India, the US, Singapore and Indonesia in a sub-orbital flight aboard the -Vikram-S.
With this mission, Skyroot will be the first private space company in India to launch a rocket into space, heralding a new era for the space industry that opened in 2020 to facilitate the participation of the private sector.
The Skyroot launch vehicles have been named ‘Vikram’ as a tribute to the founder of the Indian space program and the famous scientist Vikram Sarabhai.
Based in Hyderabad, Skyroot was the first startup to sign a memorandum of understanding with ISRO to launch its rockets.
It aims to break down barriers to entry into cost-effective satellite launch and spaceflight services by advancing its mission to make spaceflight affordable, reliable and accessible to all, the statement said.
Founded in 2018, Skyroot has successfully built and tested India’s first privately developed, hypergolic-liquid, and solid fuel-based rocket engines using advanced composites and 3D printing technologies.
Skyroot Aerospace has successfully raised $51 million (approximately Rs. 410 crore) in a Series-B funding round, in September this year. It had raised $11 million (around Rs. 88 crore) in a Series-A capital raise in July last year.
