Indian space startup Skyroot Aerospace on Saturday launched the country’s first privately developed orbital rocket, a key test of national efforts to compete for a bigger share of the global commercial launch market.
Vikram-1 Rocket Details
The Vikram-1 rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 6:35 am GMT, carrying several customer payloads and in-orbit experiments on its maiden orbital mission, dubbed “Mission Aagaman”.
The mission is intended to validate the rocket’s propulsion, avionics, telemetry, guidance, navigation and control systems in flight while collecting data for future commercial launches, Skyroot said.
The Indian mission comes amid intensifying competition in the global small satellite launch market, where startups are seeking to challenge incumbents led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
