The Vikram-I rocket will fly with its maximum carrying capacity and put the satellites in a Low Earth Orbit.
The Hyderabad-based rocket maker Skyroot Aerospace will take to space multiple cube satellites -- foreign and Indian -- this year with its Vikram-I rocket, said a top company official.
"While the exact month for the launch of Vikram-1 is yet to be confirmed, we are in the advanced stages of flight qualification tests of various systems and subsystems," Co-Founder Pawan Kumar Chandana told this correspondent.
"These tests are crucial for ensuring the readiness of the launch vehicle for its maiden flight in 2025. In the coming weeks and months, we are looking forward to conducting a few major tests, including the payload fairing separation test and the stage-1 static fire test," Chandana added.
According to Chandana, the rocket will have few payloads and details will be shared closer to the launch date.
The Vikram-I rocket will fly with its maximum carrying capacity and put the satellites in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), it is learnt
About 15 minutes after the lift off from the Sriharikota rocket port owned by the Indian Space Research Organisation, the cubesats will be ejected using an ultra-low shock pneumatic separation system.
Vikram-I's commercial flight will be the country's first rocket belonging to a private company after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government opened up the space sector for private players.
The rocket derives its name after Dr Vikram Sarabhai, founder of the Indian space programme.
Skyroot Aerospace has two more rocket variants -- Vikram-II and Vikram-III -- with a higher carrying capacity.
In 2022, Skyroot Aerospace carried out successfully the flight test of its rocket Vikram-S in a sub-orbital mission from the Sriharikota rocket port.
It was also the first test flight of a rocket belonging to a private company from Indian soil.
Skyroot Aerospace was set up in 2018 with a seed funding by entrepreneur Mukesh Bansal.
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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