Unfavourable weather: Vikram S's launch gets rescheduled to Nov 18
text_fields
New Delhi: Unfavourable weather situations have forced to postpone the sub-orbital launch of India's first private rocket Vikram S by three days. The new launch date is November 18, as per the firm Skyroot Aerospace, which developed the rocket, PTI reported.
The firm said, "Due to the inclement weather forecast, we have been given a new launch window from Nov 15-19 for our Vikram-S rocket launch from Sriharikota, with the most likely date being November 18 at 11:30 a.m."
The launch was earlier scheduled for November 15.
Earlier, the launch was scheduled for the 15th of this month. The maiden mission is called 'Prarambh' (the beginning) and will carry payloads of two Indian and one foreign customer and is set for launch from the Indian Space Research Organisation's launchpad at Sriharikota.
The mission will help to validate 80 per cent of the technologies that will be used in the Vikram-1 orbital vehicle, planned to launch next year, and thus it will be a milestone for Skyroot.
"One of the key areas that we would be monitoring closely would be the performance of our solid-fuelled rocket engine 'Kalaam -1'," a Skyroot spokesperson said.
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 onboard 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.
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.