India's Skyroot Aerospace Launches First Private Orbital Rocket

Skyroot Aerospace, an Indian private sector company, successfully launched Vikram-1, its first orbital rocket, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh. The rocket carried two symbolic payloads, 'Cosmic Bloom' and a small gold rocket with micro-carvings of three scientists, to a low Earth orbit at an altitude of 450 kilometers. This launch makes India the third country, after the US and China, to have a private company capable of launching an orbital rocket. The mission demonstrated several technologies such as propulsion and guidance systems and flight control systems. Skyroot Aerospace, founded in 2018, became India's first space startup to reach a billion-dollar valuation in May 2023. The launch of Vikram-1 is expected to boost India's ambitions in commercial space and attract more investments.