India's First Private Orbital Rocket Set For July 18 Launch

Hyderabad-based space startup, Skyroot Aerospace is set to make history on July 18 with the first launch of its orbital rocket, Vikram-1. The flight mission could mark India's entry into the global private orbital launch market.

The launch, named Mission Aagaman, is scheduled for 11:30 am from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The company said all necessary airspace and maritime clearances have been obtained, with authorities notifying restricted zones along the rocket's flight path and impact corridor ahead of the mission. 

The flight, company said, marks India's entry into the global private orbital launch market and represents a significant milestone for the country's space ecosystem. 

Mission Aagaman will be the first test flight of Vikram-1, India's privately developed oribtal launch vechicle. 

The launch will also be Skyroot's second space mission after the successful flight of Vikram-S suborbital rocket on November 18, 2022, which became the first privately built rocket to reach space from Indian soil.

The company said Mission Aagaman is intended to validate the performance of Skyroot's orbital launch vehicle and key technologies in flight.

The mission is expected to carry multiple payloads. As Vikram-1 takes to the skies on its maiden orbital mission, one of its most closely watched payloads will be Mission Embrace, a robotic technology developed by Hyderabad based startup Cosmoserve Space.

As reported earlier by NDTV, Cosmoserve aims to test what it described as the world's first soft robotic capture system in orbit. The technology is designed to gentyl capture defunct satellites and orbital debris using flexible robotoc arms. 

The technology is aimed at solving one of the biggest challenges facing the space industry today - space junk.