India’s First Private Orbital Rocket ‘Vikram-1’ Successfully Launched

Hyderabad-based space company Skyroot Aerospace successfully launched India’s first private orbital rocket, ‘Vikram-1’, on Saturday. The rocket was launched from the Sriharikota launch center in Andhra Pradesh at 12:05 PM. Initially, the launch was scheduled for 11:30 AM but the countdown was halted about five minutes before lift-off. After a brief pause, the countdown resumed and the rocket was successfully sent into space.

According to news agency PTI, this test flight has been named ‘Mission Agniban’. Under this mission, Vikram-1 carried various payloads for technical testing. Among them were a postcard from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and an artwork titled ‘Cosmic Bloom’. Previously, Skyroot Aerospace had launched a suborbital rocket named ‘Vikram-S’ in 2022.