India's First Private Rocket is gearing up for its Maiden flight

India’s first privately developed rocket — Vikram-S is undergoing final launch preparations at ISRO launchpad in Sriharikota and is expected to be launched in a suborbital mission later this week.

The mission is named ‘Prarambh’ — meaning ‘the beginning’. The rocket is developed by Skyroot Aerospace, which has the technical launch clearance from InSpace and is looking at a launch window between November 12 and 16.

“A launch window between November 12 and 16 has been notified by authorities, the final date being confirmed based on weather conditions. With this maiden mission, we’re 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 recently opened up to facilitate private sector participation,” the Hyderabad-headquartered company said. Skyroot, incidentally, was the first Indian startup to sign an MoU with Isro in this regard.

“We could build and get Vikram-S mission-ready in such a short time only because of the invaluable support we received from ISRO and IN-SPACe, and the technology talent that we inherently possess,” Pawan Kumar Chandana, CEO, Skyroot said.

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

Naga Bharath Daka, COO, Skyroot said: “Vikram-S is a single-stage sub-orbital launch vehicle which would carry three customer payloads and help test and validate the majority of the technologies in the Vikram series of space launch vehicles. We're utilising ISRO’s spaceport.