Skyroot’s $1.1 billion rocket bet is about to launch from ISRO’s own launchpad

Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace, India’s first spacetech unicorn, is set to launch Vikram-1, the country’s first privately developed orbital-class rocket, at 11.30 am on Saturday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The mission, named Aagaman, will be Skyroot’s maiden orbital test flight and the first time a private Indian company has occupied the historic first launch pad that ISRO has used for decades.

The date carries weight beyond the mission itself. Exactly 46 years earlier, on 18 July 1980, ISRO launched the Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 from the same spaceport, placing the Rohini satellite RS-1 into orbit and making India the sixth country capable of launching its own satellites. Vikram-1 stands 22 metres tall, the same height as SLV-3, but is a seven-storey, multi-stage vehicle built from an all-carbon composite structure with in-house propulsion systems, including high-thrust solid-fuel boosters and 3D-printed engines.

Skyroot became India’s first spacetech unicorn in May this year, reaching a valuation of more than $1.1 billion after a $60 million fundraise led by GIC and Sherpalo Ventures. Co-founder and CEO Pawan Kumar Chandana called the moment a milestone for the company and the country’s private space sector. ‘This is the first time a private rocket is standing on the ISRO launchpad,’ he said.

Vikram-1 is designed to carry satellites weighing up to 350 kg to low Earth orbit, and its first test flight is targeting a 450 km orbit at an inclination of 60 degrees. Authorities have issued airspace and maritime notices and created restricted zones along the rocket’s ascent and impact corridor, while Skyroot’s launch control centre has completed final integrated checks along with interface checks with telemetry ground stations and tracking radars.

The company is treating the flight primarily as a technology validation exercise rather than a commercial launch, with the roughly 16-minute mission expected to generate data on systems that have so far only been tested on the ground. ‘We have done everything that could be done to test Vikram-1 on ground,’ Chandana said. ‘On July 18, we are eager to see how Vikram-1 performs in real flight environment for the first time. This is our first test flight, and we will be getting valuable data from it.’

Co-founder and COO Naga Bharath Daka said the launch reflects the work of around 1,000 people and more than 400 suppliers. Skyroot was founded in 2018 by Chandana and Daka, both former ISRO scientists, and has spent nearly four years developing Vikram-1 — well inside the eight-to-ten-year timeline Chandana says orbital rocket development typically takes globally. The company previously made history on 18 November 2022, when its two-storey Vikram-S became the first privately built Indian rocket to reach space on a suborbital flight.

Wikimedia Commons/by ISRO