India’s first privately developed orbital rocket blasted into space on Saturday, an achievement Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed as opening new frontiers and accelerating innovation. Lifting off from an island north of Chennai, the Vikram-1 rocket signals India’s plans to capture a larger share of the commercial rocket launch market.
The India private rocket launch makes the South Asian nation the third country after the US and China to achieve the milestone, following a surge of investment in the space sector since the pandemic and the creation of more than 400 space startups.
How the Launch Happened
Skyroot Aerospace, the company behind the launch, said the Vikram-1 rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota island, in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh. The launch, dubbed “Mission Aagaman” after the Hindi word for “arrival,” took place at 0635 UTC/GMT (11:05 a.m. local time).
“Hello space, we have arrived!” the firm wrote on X. “Vikram-1’s Test Flight-1 has completed its mission. The first-ever Indian private sector launch has been successfully completed.”
Vikram-1 is designed to carry small satellites into low-Earth orbit. Skyroot named the rocket after Vikram Sarabhai, widely regarded as the father of the Indian space programme.
