Launch of India's first private rocket Vikram S: A new 'beginning' for India's space sector

Vikram S is going to be the India's first privately developed rocket to be launched. Developed by a Hyderabad-based space startup Skyroot Aerospace, ISRO has provided it a launch window between November 12 and 16, 2022. If weather conditions permit, it can be launched as early as November 12, 2022 from Sriharikota.

Incidentally, it is also the first mission of Skyroot Aerospace - the company behind the Vikram S rocket - and no wonder it was given the name 'Prarambh,' which means the 'beginning' in Hindi. Now coming back to the naming scheme, the name Vikram is a tribute to the founder of the Indian Space programme Vikram Sarabhai.

Vikram-S is a single-stage sub-orbital launch vehicle which would carry three customer payloads. The launch will help test and validate the majority of the technologies in the Vikram series of space launch vehicles.

To make it easier for the layman to understand these technical jargon, let us tell you in simpler terms what is a single-stage rocket and what do we mean by sub-orbital launch vehicle.

• A rocket or a launch vehicle is of 2 types: single stage and multi stage.
• In single stage rocket, the fuel is contained in a single container.
• While in multi stage rocket, there are several containers placed above one another.
• Such rockets keep dropping the fuel containers once they get emptied out reducing the overall weight and efforts needed to propel the rocket.
• All the advanced rocket are normally multi-stage launch vehicle.

Now let's understand what is a sub-orbital launch?

• If you want to establish a satellite into the earth's orbit, the launch is orbital.
• Unlike orbital rocket, a sub-orbital rocket is launched with velocity less than what is needed to propel the satellites into orbit (called escape velocity).
• A sub-orbital launch is a bit like a mock test before the actual exam of an orbital launch.
• It tests the capacity of the launch vehicle to see if it is capable - or still needs some improvement - of putting satellites into the orbit.
• A sub-orbital rocket doesn't get far enough in the space and begin to return to the earth having reached a particular height set in the space.

More About Skyroot

• Other than a launch vehicle, Skyroot is also working on a cryogenic engine - Dhawan-I, named after former ISRO chairman Satish Dhawan.
• It will have two high-performance rocket propellants, liquid natural gas and liquid oxygen, giving it more power needed to carry, and establish, heavy payload into the earth's orbit.

Significance of the launch of first Private Rocket in India

• Skyroot has designed the series for the small satellite market at low costs and with capabilities for multi-orbit insertion.
• The world market of small satellites launch is growing and India - with both ISRO and the private players - is looking to get a large pie of the market.
• The Vikram series are all-carbon-fibre structures that can launch up to 800 kg of payloads to the Low Earth Orbit.
• It had, in 2021, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ISRO - a first for Indian startups - on sharing the space agency's facilities and expertise.