‘DEFINING MOMENT’:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi touted the achievement, saying that it would encourage the youth to ‘dream bigger and innovate fearlessly’
India’s first privately built orbital rocket took its maiden flight yesterday, Skyroot Aerospace said, marking a significant step for the South Asian giant as it eyes a bigger slice of the global space economy.The Vikram-1 rocket, designed to carry small satellites into low Earth orbit, took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota amid loud cheers. “Hello space, we have arrived!” Skyroot Aerospace wrote on X. “Vikram-1’s Test Flight-1 has completed its mission. The first ever Indian private sector launch has been successfully completed.”
The Vikram-1 rocket launches from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, yesterday.
Vikram-1 is about as tall as a seven-story building and capable of carrying payloads weighing up to 350kg. Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre chairman Pawan Goenka said the achievement went “way beyond expectation for the very first orbital launch ever taken by an Indian private company.”
