India's Skyroot Aerospace readies country's first private orbital rocket launch
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FILE PHOTO: Naga Bharath Daka and Pawan Kumar Chandana, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, pose in front of Vikram-I, India's first private commercial rocket, at the campus of Skyroot Aerospace during the inauguration ceremony of Infinity Campus, India's larg
July 2 (Reuters) - Indian space startup Skyroot Aerospace said on Thursday it was preparing for the launch of its Vikram-1 rocket, the first attempt by an Indian private company to place a satellite in orbit.
Founded by former Indian Space Research Organisation engineers, Skyroot is developing small rockets similar to those built by Rocket Lab and Firefly Aerospace.
The Vikram-1, a seven-stories-tall, multi-stage launch vehicle, is designed to carry payloads of up to 350 kilograms into the low Earth orbit.
Skyroot, which became India's first space startup to reach a $1 billion valuation after raising $60 million from GIC and Sherpalo Ventures in May, has set a July 12 - August 4 launch window for the maiden flight from the country's main spaceport, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
The test flight, carrying a mix of domestic and international customers, aims primarily to collect in-flight performance data across propulsion, guidance and stage separation systems, the company said.
The launch comes as India opens its state-dominated space sector to private companies, seeking a bigger share of the global market for satellite launches and related services.
Industrial groups such as Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited are also moving into rocket manufacturing as the government pushes to build a $44 billion space economy by 2033.
(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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