Exploring India's first private rocket facility in Hyderabad: A visual tour

Spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace is gearing up to fire its first orbital space launch vehicle in the first quarter of 2024. It created history by sending India’s first privately built rocket, Vikram-S, into space last year.

The Hyderabad-based startup recentally unveiled the seven storeyed, multi-stage launch vehicle Vikram-1 that has a payload capacity of around 300 kg and the capability to place satellites in lower earth orbit (LEO).

Vikram-1 is a multi-stage launch vehicle with a capacity to place around 300 kg payloads in Low Earth Orbit. It is an all-carbon-fibre-bodied rocket that can place multiple satellites into orbit and features 3D-printed liquid engines.

Planned to be launched in early 2024, Vikram-I will be Skyroot's second rocket, after the successful launch of the Vikram-S rocket on November 18 last year. The first Vikram-1 mission will be partly commercial and will be followed up by 3-4 Vikram-1 missions over the next one and half years before Skyroot goes fully commercial.

Set up by two former ISRO scientists in 2018, Skyroot, which has already raised Rs 526 crore so far and plans to raise a bridging round soon, also inaugurated India’s largest private integrated rocket development facility under a single roof.

Spread over 60,000 sq ft, the new facility, which is located adjacent to the Rajiv Gandhi international airport at Shamshabad. It is billed as the country's largest private rocket development facility under one roof.

The facality will house Skyroot’s integrated design, manufacturing and testing facilities for building rockets and will have a capacity to accommodate around 300 employees.

The site will also be home to Skyroot’s headquarters – christened MAX-Q, which is the maximum stress that a rocket has to push through during its journey into space. Science and Technology minister Jitendra Singh inaugurated 'The MAX-Q Campus', the new headquarters.