India's 1st private rocket Vikram to launch on Nov 15
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New Delhi: Vikram S, India's first-ever privately developed rocket, is all set to fire up on November 15. The developers of the rocket Skyroot Aerospace, a Hyderabad-based startup, proclaimed on Tuesday that the rocket is up to a sub-orbital mission with three payloads, PTI reported.
The maiden mission is named 'Prarambh' or the beginning, which will take payloads of two Indian and one foreign customer and will be fired from the Indian Space Research Organisation's launchpad at Sriharikota.
On Friday, Skyspace Aerospace said, "Heartbeats quicken. All gazes are up to the sky. The earth is listening. It all points to 15 Nov 2022 for launch."
Skyroot Aerospace CEO and co-founder Pawan Kumar Chandana told PTI that the launch is scheduled at 11:30 am.
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.
As a tribute to the founder of the Indian space programme and renowned scientist Vikram Sarabhai Skyroot's launch vehicles are named 'Vikram'.
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 spaceflight by advancing its mission to make spaceflights affordable, reliable and regular for all, the firm said in a statement.
The startup 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 so far.
It raised USD 51 million through a Series-B financing round in September this year and USD 11 million in Series-A capital raise in July last year.