Diamonds and 'cab to orbit': Rocket aiming to transform India's space ambitions takes off

Image source, Reuters Image caption, Vikram-1 took off from the Indian Space Research Organisation's launch facility in Sriharikota on Saturday

What if launching a satellite was as easy as calling a cab?

That's the vision behind an Indian private rocket company that achieved its first orbital launch on Saturday.

Skyroot Aerospace, which recently became India's first space tech unicorn after reaching $1.1bn valuation, launched Vikram-1 from the Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro) launch facility in Sriharikota in southern India.

The seven-storey rocket lifted off at 12:05 India time [06:35 GMT] and travelled 280 miles (450km) to reach the Low Earth Orbit in a 16-minute flight.

Skyroot is the first Indian private company to launch a rocket into orbit, making India only the third country, after the US and China, with a private company capable of orbital launches.

"Vikram-1 Test Flight-1 has reached orbit... History is made," the company posted , external on X.

The successful Vikram-1 launch will take Skyroot closer to its goal of offering what it calls a "cab service to space", where companies can hire a rocket "to ride to a unique location in the orbit to place a satellite or visit a space station".

Image source, Skyroot Aerospace Image caption, The rocket was named after Vikram Sarabhai, regarded as the father of India's space programme

The rocket - named after Vikram Sarabhai, who is called the father of India's space programme - is small and has the capacity to carry payloads of up to 350kg, Skyroot co-founder and CEO Pawan Kumar Chandana told the BBC before the launch.

Chandana says today, access to space remains "a major bottleneck, with satellite operators often waiting for months or even years for a launch opportunity" and that their venture expects to change that.

He says Skyroot aims to cut long waits for satellite launches by offering dedicated missions for small payloads.

Instead of sharing space on large rockets that fly on fixed schedules, customers can book a launch tailored to their satellite and its required orbit - much like taking a taxi instead of waiting for a train.

"If you want to just go to a friend's house, you don't need a train, you book a cab, an Uber. What we are offering is a cab service to space, which can be used to ride to a unique location in the orbit to place a satellite or visit a station."

Skyroot's model would appear similar to that of Rocket Lab in the US, which provides small-lift launch vehicles.

The Indian test launch mission called Aagman - Sanskrit for arrival - has placed into orbit six payloads.

They include scientific instruments such as a robotic arm for removing space debris, an Earth observation camera and satellites, including one from a German company.

But they also include two symbolic payloads which have generated a buzz in India. One is a lotus made of lab-grown diamonds and a tiny gold rocket with micro-sculptures of three of India's best-known scientists.

Each smaller than a grain of rice, the sculptures pays tribute to Nobel Prize-winning physicist CV Raman and aerospace engineer and former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam, besides Sarabhai.

"We exist because of the Indian space programme, we stand on the shoulders of our early visionaries and this is our way of paying tribute to three great scientists who shaped India's space programme," Chandana explained.

He said the diamond lotus - called Cosmic Bloom and developed by Cosmos Diamonds - is an artist's tribute to space and celebrates India's creativity. It is expected to remind us all of the line "like a diamond in the sky" - from the popular nursery rhyme Twinkle, Twinkle.

Image source, Skyroot Aerospace Image caption, A diamond lotus is among Vikram-1's payloads

Saturday's launch is the first of two test flights Skyroot plans to do this year before they launch commercially next year.

"We have the capacity to build one rocket every month at our factory in the southern city of Hyderabad," Chandana said.

Skyroot came into being in 2018 when Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka - who were colleagues at Isro - quit their jobs and co-founded the space-tech start-up to build rocket components for satellites.

In 2020, India opened the space sector to private firms, allowing them to build rockets and satellites and use Isro's launch facilities with the aim of increasing the country's share in the global business market from 2% at present to 10% by 2030.

Since then, the Indian government says more than 400 space start-ups have been set up in India, but Skyroot remains the most successful of them - and the only unicorn in the sector.

The company first made headlines in November 2022 when it launched India's first privately developed suborbital rocket.

Saturday's launch came at a time when India's space programme has been in focus following Isro's historic Moon, Mars and solar missions in recent years.

India plans to send astronauts into space next year, an orbiter to Venus by 2028 and build its own space station by 2035.

And Skyroot's cab service could also cater to Isro's space programmes, but Chandana says that "70-80% of our market would be the global economy".

"These would include satellites supporting services that millions rely on every day, from agriculture and fisheries to disaster management, communications, connectivity, navigation and national security. So, the economic opportunity is huge."

Image source, Skyroot Aerospace Image caption, The payloads also include scientific instruments such as a robotic arm for removing space debris