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.

Comments

Agnikul opens India's first rocket engine factory in Chennai

Space tech startup Agnikul Cosmos today inaugurated India's first-ever facility to manufacture 3D-printed rocket engines in Chennai. Named Rocket Factory 1, it was unveiled by Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran and Isro chairman S Somanath in the presence of Pawan Goenka, the chairman of IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre). The 10,000-square-foot facility is located at IIT-Madras Research Park. It will have a 400mm x 400mm x 400mm metal 3D-printer from EOS that will enable end-to-end manufacturing of a rocket engine under one roof. The manufacturing facility has a capacity to make two rocket engines per week and thereby one launch vehicle every month, Agnikul co-founder Srinath Ravichandran told TOI. "This s a milestone for us as we go from R&D phase into core manufacturing with the opening of this facility, and begin productionizing the launch vehicle engine making. We have a lot of inbound interest [for launches] from global quarters...

ISRO is silently building Reusable Launch Vehicle

The Indian space agency is literally growing new wings as it gets ready to test a scaled down version of what can easily be described as the `swadeshi Space Shuttle'. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) calls it the `Reusable Launch Vehicle' or RLV. If all goes to plan very soon it will be seen flying over the Science City in Challakere, Karnataka, where the first landing experiment is being planned. S Somanath, Chairman, ISRO says "We are working silently on reusable rocket technology, with a very low budget, low cost and low investment." In the past USA and Russia have flown full-fledged winged space vehicles. Russia/USSR flew its vehicle called `Buran' only once in 1988 and the program was then shelved. USA made 135 flights of the Space Shuttle and in 2011 it was retired. Since then in a new burst of energy, USA, China and India are the only countries having an active program of re-useable rocket development. If all goes as per plan India's full...

ISRO is getting ready for Gaganyaan Abort Test with Special Test Vehicle

The first abort test using the special test vehicle (TV) part of #Gaganyaan, which was earlier targeted for the last quarter of this calendar year, is now expected only in early 2023. ISRO chairman S Somanath told: “There’s been a lot of progress & at this juncture we're looking at the first test in early 2023. The test vehicle is already at SHAR (spaceport in Sriharikota) and work on the crew module (CM) and crew escape system (CES) is progressing. As reported earlier, the test — TV technology demonstrator-1 (TV-TD1) mission — will demonstrate the descent phase, parachute deployment and recovery, among other things. While there will be more than one TV-TDs, in the first one, the CM will separate from the TV at a height of around 11km (from sea level), attain an altitude of around 15km before falling back to back in the Bay of Bengal. The Sriharikota ground team will track. Once separated or ejected from TV, CM will have a free fall. Essentially, will demonstrate crew e...

AlphaRocketry

Search This Blog