‘This is our first test flight’: the founders behind India’s private rocket

‘This is the first time a private rocket is standing on the ISRO launchpad,’ said Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder and CEO of Skyroot Aerospace, describing the moment his company’s Vikram-1 rocket was integrated onto the historic first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre-Sriharikota Range. The rocket, India’s first privately developed orbital-class launch vehicle, is scheduled to lift off at 11.30 am on Saturday in a mission named Aagaman.

Chandana and co-founder Naga Bharath Daka, both former ISRO scientists in their late 30s, started Skyroot Aerospace in 2018 and built Vikram-1 in nearly four years — a pace Chandana says is unusually fast, since orbital rocket development globally often takes eight to 10 years. ‘We have done everything that could be done to test Vikram-1 on ground,’ Chandana said. ‘On July 18, we are eager to see how Vikram-1 performs in real flight environment for the first time. This is our first test flight, and we will be getting valuable data from it.’

Daka said the launch represents the work of around 1,000 people and more than 400 suppliers. ‘This test flight will show us how every technology we have developed over the years performs in real-world conditions,’ he said. ‘With the in-flight data gathered from this mission, we will return to the shop floor to learn, improve, and build further.’

The launch date is not incidental. Exactly 46 years earlier, on 18 July 1980, ISRO launched the Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 from the same spaceport, placing the Rohini satellite RS-1 into orbit and making India the sixth country able to launch its own satellites. Vikram-1 stands 22 metres tall, the same height as SLV-3, but is a seven-storey vehicle built from an all-carbon composite structure with in-house propulsion, including high-thrust solid-fuel boosters and 3D-printed engines.

Designed to carry satellites of up to 350 kg to low Earth orbit, Vikram-1’s first test flight is targeting a 450 km orbit at a 60-degree inclination over a flight expected to last about 16 minutes. Authorities have issued airspace and maritime notices creating restricted zones along the ascent and impact corridor, and Skyroot’s launch control centre has completed final integrated checks along with interface checks with telemetry ground stations and tracking radars.

The company became India’s first spacetech unicorn in May this year, reaching a valuation of more than $1.1 billion after a $60 million fundraise led by GIC and Sherpalo Ventures. Skyroot had already made history once before, on 18 November 2022, when its two-storey Vikram-S became the first privately built Indian rocket to successfully reach space on a suborbital flight.

Wikimedia Commons/by ISRO