Mission Prarambh: Skyroot Aerospace to launch Vikram-S from Sriharikota on November 18

Vikram-S

Skyroot Aerospace, a Hyderabad-based space tech startup, will be launching India's first privately manufactured rocket, Vikram-S from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 18.

Earlier, the startup had been given a launch window of November 12–16, and an initial date of November 15 for the launch. However, it was called off due to bad weather.

The project is named Mission Prarambh. The mission's director will be Pawan Kumar Chandana, the startup's CEO.

Vikram-S, the first in the Vikram series of rockets, is powered by a solid-fuel engine and has 3D-printed motors. During the flight, three customer payloads will be carried.

Earlier, Chandana told Moneycontrol that many of the rocket's subsystems and technologies would be tested during the mission's pre-lift-off and post-lift-off stages.

"One of the key areas that we would be monitoring closely would be the performance of our solid-fueled rocket engine and several avionics on board," Chandana had said.

The launch is also significant for Skyroot Aerospace because it will help validate 80 percent of the technologies in the Vikram series of orbital space launch vehicles, as well as the startup's future plans to launch its Vikram-I rocket next year.

The announcement of the launch comes two months after Skyroot said it had secured $51 million (Rs 403 crore) in Series-B funding. The company said that the funding would help with their "initial development launches".