Skyroot successfully test fires 3rd stage of Vikram-1 rocket

HYDERABAD: Spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace , which is gearing up to send India’s first private commercial space launch vehicle , Vikram-1 , into lower earth orbit , successfully tested the third stage of the rocket.

“The third stage of our Vikram-1 launch vehicle, Kalam-100 , roared to life for over 102 seconds – equipped with an advanced flex nozzle for precise thrust vector control,” Skyroot announced on Monday. “Kalam-100 generates a peak vacuum thrust of 100kN at an operating area ratio of 60 in flight. This is a success engineered by many – people and computers,” it said on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

While the rocket is named Vikram-1 after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India’s space programme, the third stage has been named Kalam-100 after India’s missileman and President APJ Abdul Kalam . The Hyderabad-based startup said the latest test builds on the success of the previous fixed-nozzle static fire test that used cutting-edge sensors to capture over 150 data channels.

The startup said the automatic launch computer and entire suite of Vikram-1 flight avionics, including the mission computer but excluding the chipset, used in the test were all developed by Skyroot in-house. The static test also incorporated an in-house developed head-mounted safe arm (HMSA) to ensure the safe operation of the rocket stage.

The test was conducted at Solar Group’s testbed at Nagpur. Solar Group, which also holds a minority stake in Skyroot, provided the casting support for the third stage of the rocket. The other investors in Skyroot include Singapore's GIC and Temasek, the founders of Hyderabad-based Greenko Group, Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal's Meraki Labs, Sherpalo Ventures, Worldquant Ventures, AUM Ventures and Graph Ventures.