India’s first privately developed orbital rocket has given the country’s fledgling commercial space industry a long-sought proof point, but analysts say Skyroot Aerospace must now show it can launch regularly, cheaply and reliably enough to win customers in a crowded global market.
Skyroot’s Vikram-1 rocket lifted off on Saturday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, carrying several customer payloads and in-orbit experiments on its maiden orbital mission, called “Mission Aagaman”.
The rocket injected its payload into a 450km (280-mile) orbit on its first attempt, making India the third country to achieve orbital launch capability through private enterprise, after the US and China.
The milestone drew comparisons on social media with SpaceX’s Falcon 1, which reached orbit only on its fourth attempt. It was also seen as a step forward in India’s ambition to grow its space economy from about US$8.4 billion to US$44 billion by 2033, targeting about 8 per cent of the global market.
For decades, the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was virtually the only major player in the country’s space sector.
Experts said the launch was significant, but Skyroot still had a long way to go before it could turn a successful test into a commercial business.