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Mission is a success! Vikram-1 put all payloads in orbit!
Getting to orbit on the first-ever test flight is not a small feat. This is a huge achievement for Skyroot Aerospace!
Per what I've heard, they've got 2 more Vikram rockets in production. Hope they get to their initially desired cadence of one launch every month!
Doing this on first try is not normal feat. Looking into their designs, they built a lot of redundancies.
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Absolutely loved the flash of the initial ignition, I felt such relief when it cleared the tower itself.... I was worried earlier when a hold was placed on the launch for a while (wondering what the issue was).
Then the onboard cam footage, the much younger teams and new faces in mission control, their cheering/excitement etc....it was all new great feeling.
I didn't expect things to go this perfectly, but they did. It makes sense though given level of detailed efforts they put in that has been posted in here already...they didn't rush.
Hope it gives great impetus to agnikul mission and their booster recovery objective.
Some highlights:
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On the launchpad prior to first flight...
Mission patch:
The date of flight has more significance...
Unless you count Rocket Lab as a New Zealand company (which may not be entirely factual, at least not anymore), Skyroot Aerospace is actually the first non-American & non-Chinese private company to have made it to orbit. Like you said, several others (European, Australian) have tried, but none outside the US/China have succeeded so far.
Orbital Sciences
SpaceX
Rocket Lab
i-Space
Galactic Energy
Virgin Orbit
Astra
Firefly Aerospace
Space Pioneer
LandSpace
Orienspace
Blue Origin
Skyroot Aerospace
Mission patch:
The date of flight has more significance...
Unless you count Rocket Lab as a New Zealand company (which may not be entirely factual, at least not anymore), Skyroot Aerospace is actually the first non-American & non-Chinese private company to have made it to orbit. Like you said, several others (European, Australian) have tried, but none outside the US/China have succeeded so far.
Orbital Sciences SpaceX Rocket Lab i-Space Galactic Energy Virgin Orbit Astra Firefly Aerospace Space Pioneer LandSpace Orienspace Blue Origin Skyroot Aerospace
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On the launchpad prior to first flight...
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Mission patch:
View attachment 81673
The date of flight has more significance...
Unless you count Rocket Lab as a New Zealand company (which may not be entirely factual, at least not anymore), Skyroot Aerospace is actually the first non-American & non-Chinese private company to have made it to orbit. Like you said, several others (European, Australian) have tried, but none outside the US/China have succeeded so far.
Btw, the gross lift-off mass (GLoM) of Vikram-1 is 45 tons. Comparable to the old ISRO ASLV's 41 tons. But Vikram-1 can carry more than twice as much payload (350kg vs 150kg) to LEO, and that's without any strap-on boosters unlike ASLV which had two! Well, that's what ~40 years of advancements in solid propulsion gets you I guess.
Skyroot is aiming for at least one more launch this year. Unclear if the 2nd launch will be with the Vikram-1U variant with boosters (~550kg to LEO).
They want Vikram-2 (with the Dhawan-1 cryogenic engine powering the kickstage) to fly next near, that will have a 900kg-1 ton capacity to LEO and additionally will have multi-orbit placement capability.
