Skyroot Launches India's First Private Space Rocket
Skyroot Aerospace launched a rocket called Vikram-1 on Saturday. It is India's first privately-built commercial rocket.
The rocket lifted off from an island north of Chennai in India. The launch site is called Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
Reports say Vikram-1 lifted off at 12:05 p.m. India time.
It reached its planned orbit 15 minutes later. The orbit was 450 kilometers above Earth.
Sources say it successfully released all four payloads. The mission was named Mission Aagaman.
The rocket carried Skyroot's SCOPE satellite. It also carried two symbolic items.
These were a gold rocket sculpture and a gem art piece called Cosmic Bloom. Skyroot Aerospace is now the first private Indian company to launch a rocket to orbit.
The company is also India's first space-tech unicorn. This is a big moment for India's space industry.
Key Terms 3
- unicorn A private company worth over 1 billion dollars.
- payload Cargo or equipment carried by a rocket into space.
- orbit The path an object takes around Earth in space.