India’s first private satellite vehicle to launch today: All you need to know about Vikram S, and why it is a big deal

Vikram’s successful launch will mark a big step for India’s space exploration sector. In fact, Skyroot on its website claims, “Launching satellites to space will soon become as easy as booking a cab — Quick, precise and affordable!”

How will Vikram contribute to this ambitious goal? What are the rocket’s special features? And why do so many satellites need to be launched at all? We explain.

What is Mission Prarambh?

Prarambh will see Vikram-S carry three customer satellites in a sub-orbital flight. Sub-orbital flight, like the ones undertaken by Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, travel slower than orbital velocity — they are fast enough to reach outer space but not fast enough to stay in orbit around the Earth.

“The Vikram-S rocket is a single-stage sub-orbital launch vehicle which will carry three customer payloads and help test and validate technologies in the Vikram series space launch vehicles,” said Naga Bharath Daka, COO and co-founder of the company.

Also, Spacekidz, a Chennai-based aerospace startup, will fly ‘Fun-Sat’, a 2.5 kg payload developed by students from India, the US, Singapore and Indonesia, on Vikram-S.

Vikram’s features

As reported by PTI, Skyroot was the first startup to sign a memorandum of understanding with ISRO for launching its rockets. Its launch vehicles have been crafted specially for the small satellite market, and are named ‘Vikram’ as a tribute to Vikram Sarabhai, founder of the Indian space programme. They come in three forms, Vikram I, II, and III.

According to Skyroot, “More than 20,000 small satellites are estimated to be launched in the coming decade, and Vikram series is designed to enable this through unprecedented mass producibility and affordability. The leading technology architecture of Vikram vehicles offers unique capabilities like multi-orbit insertion, interplanetary missions; while providing customised, dedicated and ride share options covering a wide spectrum of small satellite customer needs.”

Skyroot claims a Vikam rocket can be assembled and launched within 24 hours from any launch site, and has the “lowest cost in the payload segment”.

The need for satellite launch vehicles like Vikram

As reported earlier by The Indian Express, for a very long time, small satellites — anything weighing between 5 and 1,000 kg — had to remain content with hitching a ride to space on rockets commissioned to carry some other, larger satellites.

The timeline of the launch would be dictated by this larger, primary, satellite, whose interests would take precedence. But with more and more businesses, government agencies, even universities and laboratories beginning to send satellites — nearly all of them falling in this category of small satellites — to space, the constraints of a piggyback ride have started to hurt.

The demand for the launch of small satellites has increased at a rapid pace in the last eight to ten years, thanks to the ever-growing need for space-based data, communication, surveillance, and commerce. The need for satellite data, imageries and space technology now cuts across sectors, from weather to agriculture to transport to urban development.

In India

In India, ISRO is capable of launching satellites into space, and the demand is fast outrunning its capacity, especially as the space agency also has other, larger goals it needs to focus on. Therefore, the sector is being opened up to private players, with ISRO helping them with facilities and knowledge. The use of facilities can be chargeable, providing ISRO with revenue.

Chandna, Skyroot CEO, said on Tuesday, “We could build and get our Vikram-S rocket mission ready in such a short time only because of the invaluable support we received from ISRO and IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre), and the technology talent that we inherently possess.”

Also, on November 4, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), ISRO’s lead centre for the development of launch vehicles, facilitated the hot testing of a rocket engine developed by Indian space startup Agnikul Cosmos, as part of an MoU between them.

VSSC successfully conducted the 15-second hot test of Agnilet Engine at its Vertical Test Facility, Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), Thiruvananthapuram.