Skyroot's first space flight success
I was watching live the Skyroot's first space flight launch yesterday on my mobile. Skyroot is a private company. It is based in Hyderabad, India, and it's akin to SpaceX of the USA, wherein it's a private company trying to launch rockets into space.
Recently, the Indian government regulations have been simplified and made such that private entities can participate in the launch of rockets and satellites into space. The government is hoping that by opening up the space sector to private entrepreneurship, it is ultimately going to be a benefit not just to India but to the world.
Yesterday was the first rocket launch for Skyroot into low Earth orbit. The mission parameters for the flight Vikram 1 were to reach low Earth orbit at 450 km altitude and reach a velocity of 7.8 km/s. This means that the rocket was able to inject satellites into a circular orbit at the low Earth orbit level. As an analogy, you can consider the SpaceX Starlink satellites to be orbiting at such a level at 350 km altitude. Skyroot brands itself as an Uber for space, where a customer can book a 100 kg or a 400 kg space on their next rocket and deploy their own satellites into low Earth orbit.
What is special about yesterday's launch is that Skyroot was able to achieve mission success on its first launch. They did not have any issues in clearing the launch pad, firing their rocket engines, or reaching the altitude or velocity required to maintain injection of the satellites. What this means is that the Indian space economy or space ecosystem is world-class. We have not just a reliable national space operations centre but also a private space operations marketplace. Now anyone from India or the world can hitch a ride to low Earth orbit and seek the benefits of space technologies.
Skyroot has an ambition to launch satellites once a month and, by 2030, is targeting to launch 30 satellites. It is going to be a good ramp over the next three years, and a frugal or more cost-effective alternative to SpaceX's Falcon 1 has emerged.