India’s first private orbital rocket is set to take off later this month. On Thursday, Skyroot Aerospace announced that Vikram-1 Test Flight-1: Mission Aagaman is fully stacked at India’s historic First Launch Pad (FLP) at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.In May, Skyroot Aerospace became the first Indian space startup with a unicorn status (REUTERS)“Launch Window: July 12- August 4, 2026. Vehicle is now fully stacked at India’s historic First Launch Pad (FLP). The countdown to a new chapter in Indian spaceflight begins. One rocket, a billion believers. Thank you ISRO & INSPACe for enabling this,” read a post on X from the Hyderabad-based private space company.“For India, this is the first time a privately designed, developed, and manufactured orbital rocket has been stacked on this pad..Piece by piece, Vikram-1 is coming alive—each stage carefully lifted, aligned, and integrated into a single flight-ready rocket. Getting closer to launch.” the post read.In May, Skyroot Aerospace became the first Indian space startup with a unicorn status. The startup announced it had raised $60 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion prior to the funding. The round was co-led by early Google investor Ram Shriram’s venture capital firm, Sherpalo Ventures, and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC.Last November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Indian space start-up’s Infinity Campus in Hyderabad, and unveiled Skyroot’s first orbital rocket, Vikram-I, with the capability to launch satellites to orbit.Founded by Pawan Chandana and Bharath Dhaka, both alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology and former ISRO scientists turned entrepreneurs, Skyroot, in November 2022, launched its sub-orbital rocket, Vikram-S, becoming the first Indian private company to launch a rocket to space, according to a press release by the PMO.The Hyderabad-based state-of-the-art facility is spread over 2 lakh sqft to enable designing, developing, integrating and testing multiple launch vehicles, with a capacity to build one orbital rocket every month.