CHENNAI: India on Friday marked a major milestone in the opening of its space sector to private players as Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace successfully carried six payloads including two satellites into low-Earth orbit aboard Vikram-1, the country’s first privately developed orbital launch vehicle.The 23-metre-tall, 1.7-metre-diameter launch vehicle lifted off from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 11.30 am as part of Mission Aagaman. The rocket carried the payloads into a 450-km low-Earth orbit at an inclination of about 60 degrees, meeting the mission’s primary objective of validating India’s first privately developed orbital launch vehicle.The mission also carried symbolic payloads, including Cosmic Bloom, an artwork created from lab-grown diamonds by Cosmos Diamonds, a micro-art payload, and a handwritten postcard from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Built using advanced carbon-composite structures, Vikram-1 is a three-stage solid-fuel launch vehicle equipped with a restartable liquid-fuelled Orbit Adjustment Module (OAM) for precise orbital insertion and deployment of multiple satellites. It is designed to carry up to 350 kg to low-Earth orbit and about 260 kg to Sun-synchronous orbit, targeting the growing global market for dedicated and rideshare launches of small satellites for Earth observation, communication, scientific and technology demonstration missions. Many of the vehicle’s key technologies, including propulsion, avionics, thermal protection systems and composite structures, were first demonstrated during Skyroot’s Vikram-S suborbital mission in 2022. The flight is the first of three planned developmental missions before Vikram-1 enters commercial service. The launch also marks an important step in India’s space sector reforms, under which private companies are now permitted to develop and operate orbital launch vehicles. Until now, satellite launches from Indian soil had been carried out exclusively by ISRO.
