Chennai, Nov 18 (Representative) The Hyderabad-based Space Startup SkyrootAerospace, which became the first private player in India to successfullylaunch its own rocket, on Friday dedicated the historic success to thespace reforms ushered in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a tweet, Skyroot said “Skyroot dedicates today’s historic success ofIndia’s first private rocket launch to the space reforms brought in by thevision of Hon’ Prime Minister @narendramodi ji ” “We thank @isro and @INSPACeIND for their invaluable support towardsthis landmark milestone”, it said. “We made history today by launching India’s first private rocket. It is asymbol of new India, and just the Prarambh (beginning) of a great future.”Pawan Kumar Chandana, Co-Founder Skyroot Aerospace said. The rocket achieved 89.5 kms peak altitude. Vikram-S rocket met all theflight parameters. It’s history, he said. Ecstatic with the maiden launch, Skyroot Aerospace Founders PawanKumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka in a joint statement said “Weare very excited to share that we scripted history today by successfullylaunching India’s first privately developed rocket Vikram-S.”
“This mission has been executed in record time only because of theinvaluable support we received from IN-SPACe and ISRO, and thetechnology talent that we inherently possess”, they said. “Our path breaking mission, ‘Prarambh’ is dedicated to the Indian Private sector, which has hugely benefitted from the reforms thatwere guided by the Govt of India and its vision’’”, they added. The Vikram-S rocket flight is a technology demonstration flight toshowcase the capabilities of the company. The rocket will helpvalidate the technologies that will be used in the subsequent Vikram-1 orbital vehicle of Skyroot that is planned for launchnext year, subject to technical clearance by IN-SPACe. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Center(IN-SPACe) has been operating as a single-window, autonomousnodal agency of Department of Space (DOS) to boost privatespace sector economy in India. It has given five authorizations to the Space NGEs for undertakingspace activities in India, in six months and signed Sixteen MoUs. Till date, IN-SPACe has received more than 150 applications fromSpace NGEs for Authorization, Facilitation, and Promotion.
In theircontinued efforts to give India’s space sector a new and dynamicdimension, IN-SPACe’s enabling of Skyroot’s launch vehicle initiatesa new chapter in India’s space domain. IN-SPACe Chairman Pawan K Goenka said “India holds tremendouspotential in space and has been an enabler of epoch-making spacemissions for decades. “This maiden rocket launch for Skyroot Aerospace is perhaps the mostimportant milestone for the Indian private space sector since the spacereforms announced by the Union Government and hints at the rapidtransformative journey we’re witnessing in India’s space sector, he said. “Though one small step, it is a giant leap to demonstrate the capabilitiesof the Indian Space sector”, he added. “Heartiest congratulations to all involved in the success of ‘Prarambh’mission. A new space journey has begun”, he said. The lift off of VIKRAM-S from Sriharikota happened at 11.30 IST today. The ranging and tracking operations for VIKRAM-S were handled bySDSC SHAR facility at ISRO. Telemetry data was captured by ISTRACstation of ISRO and relayed to the control room.The launch of the Skyroot VKS rocket has been possible with the seamlessjoint efforts of various ISRO centres including SDSC SHAR, ISTRAC andVSSC, Skyroot team and IN-SPACe. The Technical Mission Readiness review committee members from ISROand IN-SPACe rigorously reviewed launch vehicle and integration preparationand gave the final launch clearance.