SRIHARIKOTA: Marking a major milestone for India's private space sector, Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace on Saturday (July 18) successfully launched its Vikram-1 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, placing all onboard payloads into their designated 450-km low-Earth orbit.
The mission, named "Aagaman", made Vikram-1 India's first privately developed orbital launch vehicle to successfully complete an orbital mission.
The three-stage rocket lifted off after technical teams resolved a pre-launch anomaly detected in the onboard computer system. Following a flawless ascent and stage separations, mission controllers confirmed that all payloads had been successfully injected into the targeted orbit.
The mission carried technology demonstration payloads from Grhaa Space, Cosmoserve, Digiqube and Skyroot's SCOPE platform. It also transported a symbolic payload from Cosmos Diamonds, including miniature gold figurines of Indian scientific pioneers Vikram Sarabhai, CV Raman and former President APJ Abdul Kalam.
Designed to carry up to 350 kg of payload to low-Earth orbit, Vikram-1 is built largely using carbon composite materials and features advanced 3D-printed engines. The successful mission validated key technologies, including propulsion systems, guidance and navigation, and stage separation.
The launch follows Skyroot's successful Vikram-S sub-orbital mission in 2022 and marks the company's transition to full-fledged orbital launch capability. The success is also seen as a significant step towards positioning India as a competitive hub for cost-effective satellite launch services.
Skyroot Aerospace Co-founder and CEO Pawan Kumar Chandana described Vikram-1 as one of the world's most capable and versatile launch vehicles. He said the mission was entirely developed and executed by Skyroot Aerospace and thanked the Government of India for granting timely authorisations. He also acknowledged the support extended by ISRO's technical teams and the company's investors.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh congratulated the Skyroot team and credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to open the space sector to private participation for enabling startups to play a larger role in India's space ecosystem.
He noted that unlike most maiden launches globally, which carry dummy payloads, Vikram-1 successfully deployed operational payloads into orbit. He added that more than 400 space startups have emerged since the sector was opened and that Skyroot Aerospace had become India's first space-tech unicorn.
ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan said the successful launch demonstrated the rapid progress made by India's private space industry since the sector was opened to private participation in 2020. He also thanked ISRO teams across various centres and launch facilities for their coordination and support in ensuring the mission's success.