Skyroot Aerospace's programme to launch Vikram-1 which is India's first-ever privately-developed and designed rocket.
Hisana Thasneem
Skyroot formally signed up with
ISRO - Indian Space Research Organisation
| credits: Skyroot AerospaceSkyroot Aerospace's programme to launch Vikram-1 which is India's first-ever privately-developed and designed rocket. It has received a boost with the Department of Space entering into a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the Hyderabad-based company building small satellite launch vehicles.
NDA was signed by on Tuesday that will enable the company to access the facilities and technical expertise available in ISRO. R Umamaheshwaran, Indian Space Research Organisation's Scientific Secretary, signed the agreement on behalf of Department of Space and Pawan Kumar Chandana, CEO of Skyroot Aerospace signed the agreement from the company's side.
Skyroot representatives also met Dr K. Sivan, chief of ISRO, assured all support for testing and qualifying their launch vehicle. NDA marks the formal beginning of the project.
From this point onwards, we will exchange data and we will exchange technical expertise, especially from ISRO to us that will enable us to do our programme faster and more reliably because we will have ISRO's strength along with us now. We get to use all testing facilities including testing and launching.- Chandana, CEO of Skyroot Aerospace
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Chandana, pointed out that a committee work under National Space Agency gives all approvals including for utilisation of test facilities for their projects. Chandana, along with Naga Baharat Daka and Vasudevan Gnanagandhi founded Skyroot. All these three were former ISRO scientists. They also mentioned that they plan to launch their first rocket by the end of 2021.
We are planning to do a launch by the end of this year. For that, all hardware, propulsion will be tested at ISRO.- Chandana
Their company's aimed for the rapid development of complex aerospace systems with lean use of materials that can be easily utilised with normal resources.
We are building first private Indian launch vehicle to put a satellite in orbit and marching ahead to compete for a reasonable share in the international small satellite launch market which is estimated to be $16 billion in the next decade.- Chandana on the company website
Skyroot is planning to design a family of rockets especially designed for the small satellite market and they named it as Vikram-1 after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India's space programme. These are
built on common architecture, covering and a wide range of payloads that can be offer the most affordable and on demand ride to space.
Vikram-I requires only minimal range infrastructure and can be easily assembled and launched within 24 hours from any launch site. The company has already achieved few milestones in its journey to launch the first rocket. It successfully test-fired its first solid rocket propulsion stage demonstrator.
Backed by investors like Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal, the company has raised $4.3 million till now and plans to raise another $15 million during the current year.