CHENNAI: While the country is celebrating the successful launch of Vikram-S rocket, India’s first private rocket, another spacetech company from Chennai, Agnikul Cosmos, incubated by IIT-Madras, is quietly building India’s first private launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota for its maiden rocket launch tentatively scheduled for next month.
“The launch pad work commenced six months ago and is nearing completion. It’s a miniature launch facility customised to suit our requirements. Unlike Skyroot, we can’t use ISRO’s sounding rocket complex or use PSLV/GSLV launch pads due to their sheer gigantic size for our Agnibaan rocket which will use our patented semi-cryogenic engine. We needed a modular launch pad with an umbilical tower to support the vertical launch that we are planning,” Srinath Ravichandran, CEO and co-founder, Agnikul Cosmos, told TNIE.
ISRO chairman S Somanath said the space agency welcomes private players to build infrastructure, including launch pads, at Sriharikota. “It all depends on the demand. If there is a need for more launch pads, private players are free to synergise. The space reforms introduced in 2020 were not only meant for manufacturing rockets, it can also be for ramping up infrastructure.” On why it took considerable time for the launch of Agnibaan, Srinath said, “Ours is a completely different technology.”
‘Full scale flight after successful Agnibaan launch in December’
“We will be flying a patented semi-cryogenic engine. This will be happening for the first time in the country. Unlike Skyroot’s mission, Agnibaan launch will be a near orbital flight. Though our maiden flight will also be a sub-orbital mission, the vehicle has higher capability. We just wanted to test our actual orbital flight at a smaller scale. Once the December launch is successful, we will be going for a full-scale orbital flight very shortly because almost all the systems that we will be using in an orbital flight will be tested starting from engine tanks, avionics, and flight software etc,” Srinath said.
Another difference between Vikram-S and Agnibaan is that the latter will be a controlled flight. Agnibaan will also be using a Flight Termination System supplied by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This would be the first time a system used by ISRO for its vehicles will be used for supporting a private launch vehicle built in India.
Srinath said that the credit for private space entities making rapid strides in the sector goes to the Union government, ISRO and IN-SPACe as they have opened up their facilities and expertise for development of private space launch vehicles.
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