CHENNAI: With weather holding good, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), a single-window autonomous nodal agency of Department of Space, on Thursday authorised the launch of India’s first private rocket from Sriharikota. It is scheduled for 11.30 am on Friday.
The sub-orbital rocket, Vikram-S, was designed and built by a Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace. The mission is called ‘Prarambh’ (the beginning) and will carry two Indian and one foreign customer payloads.
The duration of the mission from ignition to splashdown is about 291 seconds (under 5 minutes). The vehicle will reach apogee (farthest point) of 81.5 km in under 140 seconds before it is guided for a splashdown into the Bay of Bengal, about 115 km from Sriharikota island coast.
The low pressure area (LPA) formed over southeast Bay of Bengal is unlikely to impact the launch.
An Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) official confirmed the launch to TNIE, and said, “The LPA will gradually intensify and concentrate into a depression by November 19. The wind speed will increase only from November 20 along and off south Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu coast.”
According to Skyroot, Friday’s launch will be a demonstration to test and validate 80% of the technologies in the Vikram series. “Flight-proving of avionics systems like telemetry, tracking, inertial measurement, GPS, on-board camera, data acquisition and power systems will be the primary objective of this flight,” a Skyroot spokesperson said.
Pawan K Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe, Department of Space, said, “I hope the Vikram-S rocket marks the start of a new age in India’s private space domain. The seamless joint efforts of various ISRO centres have enabled the Skyroot VKS rocket to be launch-ready in a short period of time."
He said this was the fourth authorisation issued to NGE (Non-Governmental Entities) for undertaking space activities in India, by IN-SPACe in six months. Till date, IN-SPACe has received more than 150 applications from Space NGEs for Authorization, Facilitation, and Promotion.
Meanwhile, ISRO chairman S Somanath said about 100 start-ups were registered with them and were working closely in various domains of the space sector. He was speaking at a plenary session on Thursday at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022 on 'R&D of India – Innovation for Global Impact.