Hyderabad-based unicorn Skyroot Aerospace became the first Indian private company to reach orbit on Saturday, launching Vikram-1, marking a significant milestone for the country's commercial space sector.
The mission, called Aagaman, marks the culmination of years of development for the startup, which had earlier flown the sub-orbital Vikram-S in 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Skyroot team shortly after the launch, calling it proof of India's push toward self-reliance in space technology.
With this mission, Skyroot enters an exclusive club of companies capable of putting payloads into orbit on their own rockets. The list is still dominated by a handful of players worldwide.
1) SpaceX remains the benchmark, flying the reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, the most-flown and most reliable commercial launch vehicles today, while also pushing ahead with test flights of its massive Starship.
2) Rocket Lab has carved out a niche with its Electron rocket, offering frequent, dedicated rides for small satellites from launch sites in New Zealand and the US.
3) In the heavy-lift segment, United Launch Alliance is a joint venture between Boeing & Lockheed Martin, which operates the Vulcan rocket for government and commercial payloads.
4) Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has developed its own heavy-lift vehicle, New Glenn, for orbital missions.
5) Firefly Aerospace is the last American company with its Alpha rocket, built to deliver payloads to low-Earth orbit.
6) China has some major companies as well -- LandSpace, a private company operating the methane-liquid oxygen Zhuque-2 rocket, and ExPace, a subsidiary of state-owned CASIC that runs the solid-fuel Kuaizhou series.
7) The iSpace Hyperbola-1 is a historic small solid-fueled orbital launch vehicle developed by the Chinese commercial space company iSpace. It is most notable for being the first privately developed rocket to successfully reach orbit in China.
8) Galactic Energy (Beijing Galactic Energy Aerospace Technology) is one of China’s leading private commercial launch providers. Founded in 2018, the company has established a highly successful flight record with its small solid-propellant launchers and is rapidly expanding into heavy-lift, reusable liquid-propellant rockets.
Skyroot's entry into this group is significant not just for the company but for India's broader private space sector, which was opened to non-government players only in 2020.
