India’s first privately built rocket set for November 15 launch

[Skull and Bones]

India’s first privately developed rocket — Vikram-S — is set for a November 15 launch on a sub-orbital mission with three payloads, Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace has announced.

The maiden mission of Skyroot Aerospace, named ‘Prarambh’ (the beginning), will carry payloads of two Indian and one foreign customers and is set for launch from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s launchpad at Sriharikota.
“Heartbeats quicken. All gazes are up to the sky. The earth is listening. It all points to 15 Nov 2022 for launch,” Skyspace Aerospace said on Friday.

The launch is scheduled for 11:30 am, Skyroot Aerospace CEO and co-founder Pawan Kumar Chandana had told PTI.

Spacekidz, a Chennai-based aerospace startup, will fly ‘Fun-Sat’, a 2.5 kg payload developed by students from India, the US, Singapore and Indonesia on the sub-orbital flight on board Vikram-S.

With this mission, Skyroot is set to become the first private space company in India to launch a rocket into space, heralding a new era for the space sector which was opened up in 2020 to facilitate private sector participation.

Skyroot’s launch vehicles are named ‘Vikram’ as a tribute to the founder of the Indian space programme and renowned scientist Vikram Sarabhai.

Based in Hyderabad, Skyroot was the first startup to sign a memorandum of understanding with ISRO for launching its rockets.

It aims to disrupt entry barriers to cost-efficient satellite launch services and space-flight by advancing its mission to make spaceflights affordable, reliable and regular for all, the statement said.

Set up in 2018, Skyroot has successfully built and tested India’s first privately developed cryogenic, hypergolic-liquid, and solid fuel-based rocket engines using advanced composite and 3D-printing technologies.

Skyroot Aerospace successfully raised USD 51 million through a Series-B financing round in September this year. It had raised USD 11 million in Series-A capital raise in July last year.

India’s first privately built rocket set for November 15 launch

Skyroot Aerospace successfully raised USD 51 million through a Series-B financing round in September this year.

indianexpress.com

This is a suborbital flight for system validation.

 

[johncliu88]

"will carry payloads of two Indian and one foreign customers", live humans?

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

Rocket launched

India’s first private rocket Vikram-S is launched into space​

By Swati Gupta and Diksha Madhok, CNN Business
Published 3:36 AM EST, Fri November 18, 2022

Vikram-S was launched from the Sriharikota spaceport on Friday.
ISRO/Twitter
New DelhiCNN Busines —
Indian startup Skyroot Aerospace launched the country’s first privately developed rocket, Vikram-S, into space on Friday with support from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Until now, the country’s space industry has been dominated by the state-run ISRO, but Skyroot Aerospace has opened up the sector to private companies.
“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,” according to Skyroot Aerospace.


The rocket, weighing 546 kilograms (1203 pounds), was launched from the Sriharikota spaceport and reached an altitude of 89.5 kilometers (55.6 miles).
This mission symbolizes not just India’s first private rocket launch but also “the potential of new India,” said Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder of Skyroot Aerospace after the launch.
Skyroot Aerospace was launched in 2018 and is based in the southern tech hub of Hyderabad. It was founded by former ISRO engineers and has raised $68 million in funding, according to data firm Tracxn.
Last year, it became the first startup to enter into an agreement with ISRO to use the Indian space agency’s expertise and to access facilities.
The space race in the private sector is heating up around the world. Last year, billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each took supersonic joy rides to the edge of space.
India’s first private rocket Vikram-S is launched into space

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

Launch success

India Successfully Test Launches Its First Privately Developed Rocket

India Successfully Test Launches Its First Privately Developed Rocket​

Event marks a step in the country’s push to develop a commercial space industry​

The Vikram-S rocket blasted off at around 11:30 a.m. local time from the Sriharikota spaceport, reaching an altitude of 55.6 miles.PHOTO: INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANISATION/SHUTTERSTOCK
By Shan Li

Vibhuti Agarwal

Nov. 18, 2022 8:30 am ET


India tested its first privately developed rocket on Friday with a successful suborbital launch that marks a step forward in the country’s push to develop a commercial space industry.
The Vikram-S rocket, which was developed by the startup Skyroot Aerospace, blasted off at around 11:30 a.m. local time from the Sriharikota spaceport off the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It reached an altitude of 89.5 kilometers (55.6 miles), with all of the rocket’s systems working as planned, the company said.
Space experts said the launch was a crucial step forward for the country’s space industry, which has been dominated for decades by India’s national agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation.
“It’s an important milestone,” said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a New Delhi-based space expert and director of the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation. “This is hopefully the beginning of a new phase in India’s space program where the private sector can actually be more active.”

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Ms. Rajagopalan said that the ISRO was traditionally cautious about working with the private sector, with the government tightly controlling the industry and funding. But the agency has felt the need to bring in private partners in recent years as global demand for research and commercial satellite launches has grown and other countries like the U.S. and China have embraced private-sector companies.
In 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced major reforms aimed at opening the Indian space sector to the private sector.
Hyderabad-based Skyroot, founded in 2018 by two scientists formerly with ISRO, was the first private Indian company to sign an agreement with the space agency to use its testing and launch facilities after regulations were loosened.

The test launch paid homage to India’s space history. The rocket was named after Vikram Sarabhai, an Indian physicist known as the father of the Indian space program. The mission was dubbed “Prarambh,” which means “a beginning” in Sanskrit.
The Vikram-S tested technologies that Skyroot plans to use next year in launching an orbital vehicle called Vikram-1, including carbon composite parts and 3D-printed engines, the company said.
A live stream of the launch on YouTube showed the rocket lifting off, trailed by a plume of smoke, while spectators cheered and clapped. The Vikram-S reached a maximum velocity of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, according to the video.
Skyroot said about 100 people worked on the project over two years. It employs about 200 people and has raised 5.26 billion rupees (about $64 million) in capital.
India has been lagging behind other major countries in developing its space industry because private companies for years weren’t given opportunities to research, develop or test its own equipment, said Dr. Chaitanya Giri, space domain consultant at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, a think tank in New Delhi.
But Dr. Giri said he expects Indian startups to soon start competing with space companies in Europe and the U.S. Skyroot’s test launch checked off the first of three key technologies that any successful private space company has to develop: space launches. Next up are building satellites and the ability to use satellites for commercial applications.


“A lot of untapped potential has been now unleashed,” he said. “This will make India more competitive in the world space market.”


@Cheepek @Black Tornado @Skull and Bones

 

[Black Tornado]

"will carry payloads of two Indian and one foreign customers", live humans?

It does say a payload

 

[Two banks of the River]

"will carry payloads of two Indian and one foreign customers", live humans?

Armenian cube sat. And one student cube sat from India. Cannot say about the 3rd payload.