`Vikram-I': Stage set for Hyd based Skyroot to launch satellite

Skyroot Aerospace Private Limited, a private company in Hyderabad building small satellite launch vehicles, on Tuesday entered into a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the Department of Space, Government of India.

The NDA will enable the company to access the facilities and technical expertise available in the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) centers to proceed with their launch vehicle development programme.

The company's first launch vehicle, `Vikram-I' is on track for its initial launch around December 2021. Named after Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian Space Programme, Vikram-I is a part of the launch vehicles series especially crafted by the company for the small satellite market.

Built on a common architecture and covering a wide range of payloads, they offer the most affordable and on-demand ride to space. The company is developing the Vikram Satellite series.

Skyroot Aerospace was formed in January 2017 by former Indian Space Research Organization scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana, Naga Bharath Daka and Vasudevan Gnanagandhi.

The company won the National Startup Awards 2020 in the space category in October for its innovations.

In August 2020, Skyroot first came into the limelight when it test-fired the Raman-I solid-fuel upper stage. This solid-fuel upper stage is a component of Vikram-I and Skyroot was the first Indian private entity to test such a stage.

Skyroot, which builds small satellite launch vehicles (SSLVs), is among the nine ground-breaking startups and the only space startup in the country chosen to interact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to commemorate five years of the Startup India initiative.

On the occasion of signing NDA, Skyroot representatives also met Dr. K Sivan, Secretary, DOS/ Chairman, ISRO and he assured all support to Skyroot for testing and qualifying their launch vehicle.

R Umamaheswaran, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, signed the agreement on behalf of DOS and Pawan Chandana, CEO, Skyroot Aerospace signed the agreement from the company side.

Skyroot recently test-fired a solid propulsion rocket engine named Kalam-5, the first of its five Kalam-series rocket engines. The engine uses a carbon composite case and a more advanced version will be built and tested at ISRO's facilities before powering Vikram-I by December 2021.