India's first privately developed rocket reaches orbit on dramatic debut launch

Think big

“On the first attempt, reaching orbit, I never thought it was possible.”

V. Narayanan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (second from left), and Pawan Kumar Chandana, CEO of Skyroot Aerospace (second from right), pose with a replica of the Vikram-1 rocket along with other senior Indian space officials following a successful launch Saturday at the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island, India.

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R. Satish Babu/AFP via Getty Images

Indian space officials celebrated the debut flight of Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket, India’s first fully commercial satellite launcher, as a “grand success” Saturday after an on-target climb into a 280-mile-high orbit following liftoff from an island spaceport in the Bay of Bengal. The Vikram-1 lifted off from India’s primary spaceport on Sriharikota Island at 1:35 am EDT (06:35 UTC) Saturday, around midday at the launch base along India’s southeast coast. The launch was delayed more than a half-hour to resolve a last-minute technical problem. The countdown resumed, culminating in the command to ignite Vikram-1’s solid-fueled first stage booster to propel the rocket off the launch pad. Vikram-1 is modest in size compared to India’s larger workhorse rockets. Skyroot’s rocket stands about 72 feet (22 meters) tall, with the capability to place payloads of up to 770 pounds (350 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit. This makes Vikram-1 somewhat larger than the Electron launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, the world’s most successful dedicated small satellite launcher. The flight Saturday went off without any major problems. Three solid-fueled rocket motors fired in succession to reach space, then a small liquid-fueled fourth stage ignited and accelerated to orbital velocity, some 17,000 mph.

Live views from onboard cameras showed each phase of the launch sequence. The only sign of anything unusual came during the separation of the rocket’s third stage from its fourth stage. The spent third stage motor appeared to remain near the fourth stage during a brief coast, rather than backing away to a greater distance. Nevertheless, the fourth stage did its job, firing its 3D-printed engine to reach an orbit approximately 280 miles (450 kilometers) high at an inclination of 60 degrees to the equator, quite close to preflight predictions, according to Skyroot Aerospace. US military tracking data confirmed the rocket’s successful arrival in orbit.

Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket lifts off Saturday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island, India. Credit: R. Satish Babu/AFP via Getty Images Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket lifts off Saturday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island, India.

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R. Satish Babu/AFP via Getty Images

Beating the odds “We achieved one of the biggest milestones ever in India’s space sector—the first private orbital rocket reaching orbit on the very first attempt,” said Pawan Kumar Chandana, Skyroot’s cofounder and CEO, in remarks to the company’s launch team. “It still feels like a dream, and you all made this dream happen.” The first flights of new private orbital-class rockets don’t have a great track record. It took SpaceX four tries before reaching orbit with the Falcon 1 rocket for the first time in 2008. Rocket Lab’s Electron didn’t make it to orbit on its first launch in 2017. Blue Origin beat the odds with the inaugural flight of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket in 2025, but the company’s engineers had previous experience with numerous launches of the smaller New Shepard suborbital rocket. “On the first attempt, reaching orbit, I never thought it was possible,” Chandana said. “

Skyroot’s team made it possible. A big, big, big shoutout to this phenomenal team, which made it happen. In fact, this launch was nothing short of a suspense movie.” Skyroot officials set humble goals for the first launch of Vikram-1. In a press kit released before the flight, the company said its primary objective for the launch was to complete a successful liftoff, clear the tower at the launch site, and gather maximum data during ascent. “The mission objective was only to lift off and clear the tower,” said Pawan Goenka, chairman of IN-SPACe, a government organization set up in 2020 to promote India’s commercial space industry. “That was only about 100 meters, but what we went to was 450 kilometers, and it also released all the satellites that were supposed to release. So the mission was absolutely perfect.”

Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket on its launch pad. Credit: ISRO Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket on its launch pad.

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ISRO

In a statement, the Indian space agency, ISRO, said it offered “handholding and support” to the Skyroot venture by providing access to solid rocket motor casting and test facilities at ISRO’s spaceport on Sriharikota. ISRO also allowed Skyroot to launch from one of its two active launch pads. Painted blue and white, the Vikram-1 is made of lightweight carbon composite materials and is named for the Indian physicist Vikram Sarabhai, considered the father of the Indian space program. Skyroot successfully launched a suborbital rocket, Vikram-S, to an altitude of nearly 300,000 feet (90 kilometers) in November 2022.

The Vikram-1 builds on lessons learned with Vikram-S. Skyroot’s future roadmap includes the Vikram-1U, with additional strap-on solid rocket boosters to haul heavier payloads, and the Vikram-2, which will debut a cryogenic upper stage to reach a payload capacity of 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) to low-Earth orbit. The initial purpose of the Vikram rocket family is to “deliver dedicated and responsive launch services for small satellites,” Skyroot officials wrote in the press kit for Saturday’s mission. But the company has loftier ambitions. In an interview ahead of the first Vikram-1 launch, Chandana told Ars his aspiration for Skyroot involves larger liquid-fueled fully reusable rockets, with a “daily cadence” from multiple countries. Skyroot will need a lot more funding to realize that dream, but Saturday’s launch showed the company has ingredients required for a successful launch company. Saturday’s launch vaulted Skyroot to a plane above any other space startup in India, or, for that matter, in any country outside of the United States and China. Skyroot has, so far, raised approximately $160 million in capital, bringing the company’s valuation to $1.1 billion. Skyroot now has more than 1,000 employees, mostly working out of the company’s headquarters in Hyderabad. The average age of Skyroot’s workforce is 28 years old.

This view of the payload deck of the Vikram-1 rocket’s upper stage was captured moments after orbital insertion Saturday. The rocket deployed two small CubeSats and hosted several more payloads that remained attached to the upper stage. Credit: Skyroot Aerospace This view of the payload deck of the Vikram-1 rocket’s upper stage was captured moments after orbital insertion Saturday. The rocket deployed two small CubeSats and hosted several more payloads that remained attached to the upper stage.