At 12.05 pm on Saturday, a slender all-carbon-composite rocket lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. Minutes later, it secured a place in India's space history. Vikram-1, built by startup Skyroot Aerospace, became the first orbital rocket to be designed, built and flown by a private Indian company.
It succeeded on its first attempt, carrying 2 nano-satellites, Skyroot's SCOPE and Grahaa Space's SOLARAS, plus Cosmoserve Space's orbital-debris-capture robotic arm Embrace, into a 450-km low Earth orbit. It also carried 2 symbolic payloads: a floral artwork 'Cosmic Bloom', and a gold micro-rocket bearing sculptures of famous Indian scientists, each smaller than a grain of rice.
