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Journalism of Courage
India’s first private rocket that was launched Friday crossed the edge of space before splashing back into the Bay of Bengal, in a successful pilot run that heralds the entry of the private sector into the country’s space activities and sets the stage for more such launches.
The small 6-metre tall Vikram S suborbital vehicle, developed by a four-year-old startup called Skyroot Aerospace, reached an altitude of 89.5 km around 2.5 minutes after the launch from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) sounding rocket facility at Sriharikota.
The target for the rocket was to reach space, which begins at an altitude of around 80 km, and to attempt touching the Karman Line located at around the 100-km altitude mark. The Karman Line is the point where Earth’s atmosphere ends but satellites cannot be stably put into orbit.
To compare, most commercial flights travel at an altitude of around 10 km.
The mission, named Prarambh, would have been considered a success even at an altitude of 50 km, considering its main goal — checking most of the subsystems that will be used in the company’s first orbital flight using the Vikram-1 vehicle, scheduled for next year.
In fact, the three customer payloads on-board — including SpaceKidz India’s FunSat — were non-deployable. They carried sensors and instruments to validate the flight-worthiness and payload integration process for Vikram-S.
“This is a small step by a startup and a giant leap for the Indian Space Industry. It’s the Prarambh of a great future,” said Pawan Chandna, mission director and co-founder of Skyroot Aerospace.
While Friday’s mission was essentially a test run, it is still significant — and not just because it’s India’s first privately built rocket to be launched. The Vikram S vehicle lays the ground for launch of a larger vehicle by the same startup next year. ISRO chairperson S Somanath said on Thursday that around 100 startups have registered with the space agency and are working closely with it in “various domains of space sector”.
After the launch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “A historic moment for India as the rocket Vikram-S, developed by Skyroot Aerospace, took off from Sriharikota today! It is an important milestone in the journey of India’s private space industry. Congrats to @isro & @INSPACeIND for enabling this feat.”
Skyroot is developing a series of rockets, all of them named after Vikram Sarabhai, the founder of the Indian space programme.
With a height of just 6 metres and a diameter of nearly 380 mm, the rocket looked tiny compared to the ones used by ISRO. The liftoff was swift, with the rocket spending under a second (0.73 second) on the rails and reaching a speed of Mach 5 — five times the speed of sound — in about 20 seconds.
Unlike the launchpads for the orbital vehicles used by ISRO, where personnel are not allowed, the sounding rocket launchpad had officials carrying out last-minute checks till about six minutes before launch.
Friday was considered ideal for the launch, pushed by a couple of days owing to weather conditions, because the winds were mild at about 7 to 8 metres per second; the rocket was designed to withstand about 25 metres per second.
“All systems worked as planned. They have demonstrated capability of various subsystems that will go into the orbital launch vehicle,” said Pawan Goenka, chairperson of Inspace, an autonomous body under the Department of Space to guide and regulate private space activities.
Union MoS for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh, present at the Mission Control Room at Sriharikota, said: “Congratulations, India! It is indeed a new beginning, a new dawn.”
Srimathy Kesan, founder and CEO of SpaceKidz India, said: “Opening up of the private sector into this niche industry in India is going to play a pivotal role owing to its strategic location and economical launch cost. I am very sure we will have the major pie. Proud of Skyroot for creating history and we are extremely happy to play a small role in that history.”
“Team Skyroot dedicates the successful mission to Dr Vikram Sarabhai who boldly started the Indian Space programme in the 1960s, the Honourable PM who unlocked the space sector to the private players, and most importantly we thank Inspace and Isro — all their teams and dynamic leadership who enabled this mission in this most efficient way,” said Chandna.
This rocket was developed amid the pandemic. The Vikram series rockets are among the few launch vehicles in the world to have their core structure built using carbon composites. The thrusters used for spin stability in the vehicle have been 3D printed.
Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt, Director General, Indian Space Association (ISpA), said: “India’s space economy is set to grow to $13 billion and the space launch segment is estimated to grow the fastest by 2025 at a compounded annual growth rate of 13%. This will be further spurred by growing private participation, latest technology adoption and low cost of launch services. This launch is a major landmark for this growth to take place in the coming years.”
