ISRO has always been at the forefront of the space industry where it has dominated innovations in the Indian context. However, a private company ‘Skyroot Aerospace’ is also now a part of the space industry. On 18th Nov, Indian startup Skyroot Aerospace successfully launched India’s first-ever private rocket from Srihari Kota in space called ‘Vikram-S’. The launch was backed by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization).
Skyroot is a Hyderabad (tech hub) based company that was launched in the year 2018. The company was founded by former ISRO engineers. A report by ‘Tracxn’ suggested that Skyroot successfully raised funding of ₹8 Lakhs. In 2022 it became the first startup in India to sign an agreement with ISRO to use its expertise and facilities.
A statement made by Skyroot Aerospace read “The rocket launch will help test and validate the majority of the technologies in the Vikram series of orbital class space launch vehicles, including many sub-systems and technologies that will be tested across the pre-lift off and post-lift off phases of the launch.”
The Vikram-S rocket weighs 564Kgs and after being launched it reached an altitude of 89.5 Km. Pawan Kumar Chandana Co-Founder of Skyroot Aerospace said “This mission symbolizes not just India’s first private rocket launch but also “the potential of new India”.
