Skyroot becomes India's first private space company to test-fire upper-stage rocket engine

As SpaceX makes breakthroughs in the private aerospace sector, India's very own private space startup Skyroot has managed to achieve a path-breaking milestone by successfully test-firing an upper-stage rocket engine on Wednesday. 

Hyderabad-based startup Skyroot Aerospace, founded by former ISRO scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, managed to fire Vikram-1 launch vehicle's upper stage Engine-Raman, named after Nobel laureate CV Raman, within just two years of the establishment of the startup. 

According to Skyroot Aerospace, four of these Raman engines with a multi-start capability produce a thrust of 3.4kN and can successfully insert multiple satellites into orbit.

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Skyroot Aerospace's vision 

Skyroot plans to build a family of rockets and aims to launch its first rocket, which can hurl satellites of 250-700 kgs into a lower earth orbit, by end of 2021. For this, the startup is working on its 'Vikram' range of rockets, so far raising about 31.5 crores from investors. The family of rockets are named after the founder of India's Space program-- Vikram Sarabhai. This year marks the Indian physicist's 101 birth anniversary. 

Last year, ISRO scientist and founder of Skyroot Aerospace, Naga Bharath while speaking to news agency PTI said, "We have been following international market trends. There is a need for multiple launch providers around the world. There are other private launch vehicle developers in other countries. India has a good ecosystem in terms of satellite- launching and we want to leverage the ecosystem." 

Skyroot Aerospace is a Hyderabad-based aerospace manufacturing company founded in 2018. The early-stage funding was done by Curefit founders Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori along with Solar Industries. 

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