This analysis examines the inaugural orbital launch of Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram 1 vehicle, establishing India as the third nation with a privately developed orbital launch capability. The Vikram 1 utilizes a three-stage solid motor configuration (Kalam series) constructed primarily from carbon-fiber composites, paired with a liquid-fueled fourth stage (Raman 2). The vehicle successfully achieved orbital insertion, deploying active payloads including a space-debris removal demonstrator, despite a localized separation anomaly involving the third stage.
Key Highlights & Timestamps
0:06 Orbital Milestone: Vikram 1 became India's first privately built orbital rocket, making India the third country globally—following the USA and China—to achieve orbit with a non-governmental launch vehicle.
0:45 Company Background: Founded in 2018 by former ISRO scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, succeeding the 2022 suborbital flight of the 6-meter, 550 kg Vikram S sounding rocket.
1:58 Kalam 1200 First Stage: Generates approximately 100 tons of thrust via a carbon-fiber composite casing and an actuator-driven flexible vectoring nozzle, burning for roughly 100 seconds to reach ~2 km/s using scarf retro-thrust nozzles for separation.
2:50 Kalam 250 Second Stage: Features carbon-fiber composite construction, thrust vectoring, and pneumatic systems utilized for both payload fairing ejection and interstage separation.
4:10 Kalam 100 Third Stage: Produces 10 tons of thrust with a 108-second burn time, incorporating a composite casing, vectoring nozzles, and roll-control engines, developed following a reverse-order engine design methodology.
5:14 Trajectory and Separation Anomaly: Reached a 450 km apogee at nearly 7 km/s; post-burn stage separation exhibited an anomaly where the spent third stage appeared physically tethered to the upper assembly, posing potential nozzle-clearance risks.
7:00 Raman 2 Fourth Stage: Operates a pressure-fed, 3D-printed, regeneratively cooled hypergolic engine burning monomethyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, supported by four Raman 1 engines and eight cold gas thrusters for attitude control.
8:17 Payload Deployment: Successfully injected payloads into orbit approximately 16 minutes post-launch, including the Cosmos Earth debris-capture demonstrator and an artistic payload featuring a precision-aligned diamond flower.
9:18 Future Roadmap: Skyroot is currently developing the Dhawan 3 cryogenic engine to serve as a liquid-fueled upper stage for larger iterations of the Vikram launch vehicle family.