Crossing a new milestone in India's space history, Skyroot became the first private Indian company to launch a rocket into orbit. The company successfully completed 'Mission Agaman' with the launch of Vikram-1 rocket from Sriharikota, safely placing the satellites in Low Earth Orbit at an altitude of 450 km. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the SkyRoot team to congratulate them on this historic achievement that will strengthen India's private space sector.
The four-stage Vikram-1 rocket is capable of carrying satellites weighing up to 480 kg into orbit. Skyroot, which launched a sub-orbital rocket named Vikram-S in 2022, marks the beginning of commercial satellite launches with this orbital success. The company plans to carry out more launches this year itself and in the future to introduce more powerful rockets like Vikram-1U and Vikram-2.
Founded in 2018 by ex-ISRO scientists, SkyRoot recently raised $60 million in funding to become India's first spacetech unicorn. It is one of the biggest successes of the country's new policy of opening up the space sector to private companies. The boom will be a huge asset to India's commercial space dreams, which aim to become a huge $77 billion market by 2030.
