India has entered the global commercial space race after Skyroot Aerospace successfully launched Vikram-1, the country’s first privately developed orbital rocket, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 18.
The rocket placed multiple customer payloads and experiments into a 450km orbit during its maiden “Mission Aagaman”, making India the third nation after the United States and China to achieve private orbital launch capability, reported NDTV.
Founded in 2018, Skyroot became India’s first space start-up valued at US$1 billion (S$1.29 billion) earlier this year.
While experts hailed the milestone as a major boost for India’s ambitions to expand its space economy to US$44 billion by 2033, they said Skyroot must demonstrate consistent, reliable and cost-effective launches before it can compete successfully in the global commercial launch market.
