Sriharikota: Vikram-1 marked a historic milestone for India’s space sector as Skyroot Aerospace successfully launched the country’s first privately developed orbital launch vehicle, placing it into its designated Low Earth Orbit from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
The successful mission establishes Skyroot Aerospace as the first Indian private company to achieve an orbital launch from Indian soil and underscores India’s emergence as a significant player in the rapidly expanding global space economy.
Skyroot Aerospace was founded in Hyderabad in 2018 by former ISRO scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka. The company is currently valued at USD 1.2 billion, making it India’s first space technology unicorn. Skyroot Aerospace operates four facilities in Hyderabad, with its latest Infinity campus having the capacity to manufacture one rocket every month.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Skyroot Aerospace team on the successful launch of Vikram-1, calling it a proud milestone for India’s expanding space ecosystem and a reflection of the country’s growing scientific capability, entrepreneurial spirit and innovation-driven development.
The Prime Minister described the launch as a defining moment in India’s space journey and said the growing participation of the private sector is opening new frontiers and accelerating innovation.
He said: “Spoke to the team of Skyroot Aerospace and congratulated them on the successful launch of Vikram-1. This is a defining moment in India’s space journey. The growing participation of our private sector is opening new frontiers and accelerating innovation. This achievement will encourage countless youngsters to dream bigger and innovate fearlessly.”
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Built and developed entirely in India, Vikram-1 is the country’s first privately developed orbital launch vehicle with the capability to place up to 350 kilograms into Low Earth Orbit.
Standing approximately 22 metres tall, the launch vehicle incorporates several indigenous technological breakthroughs, including India’s first all-carbon composite orbital rocket, a 100 per cent 3D-printed liquid engine powering its Orbital Adjustment Module, advanced ultra-low-shock pneumatic separation systems and one of the country’s longest monolithic carbon-composite rocket stages.
The successful mission validated critical propulsion, avionics, telemetry, navigation and flight-control systems, laying a strong foundation for future commercial orbital launch services from India.
Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh witnessed the successful launch of Mission Aagaman and described the achievement as a defining milestone in India’s space journey.
He said the success demonstrates the growing strength of India’s public-private partnership model, enabled through the collaborative efforts of the Department of Space, ISRO, IN-SPACe and the country’s expanding start-up ecosystem.
Congratulating Skyroot Aerospace founders Pawan Kumar Chandana and Bharath Daka, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that had Prime Minister Narendra Modi not taken the bold decision to open India’s space sector to private enterprise, the country would not have witnessed this historic achievement.
He said the reforms have unlocked the immense potential of Indian innovators by providing access to national space infrastructure and creating an ecosystem where world-class technologies can now be conceived, developed and launched entirely from India.
The Minister also congratulated IN-SPACe, ISRO and the Department of Space for creating a seamless public-private partnership framework that has transformed India’s space ecosystem.
The Minister said Vikram-1 demonstrated an exceptional level of technological maturity for a maiden orbital mission. Unlike many first launches across the world that carry only dummy masses, the rocket carried experimental payloads designed to validate advanced technologies in orbit.
The mission also flew customer payloads and technology demonstrations from Indian and international partners, reflecting the growing confidence of the global space community in India’s commercial launch capabilities.
India’s space ecosystem has undergone a remarkable transformation since the landmark reforms introduced in 2020.
From having virtually no private launch ecosystem a few years ago, India today has more than 400 space start-ups, its first space unicorn and a space economy approaching USD 9 billion, with a national vision of expanding it to nearly USD 44 billion over the next decade.
