NEW DELHI: A south India-based company launched the country’s first privately-developed rocket on Friday.
“We made history today by launching India’s first private rocket. It is a symbol of new India, and just the Prarambh (beginning) of a great future,“ said Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder of Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace.
The Vikram-S suborbital rocket was launched from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota island off the country’s southeastern coast.
The rocket has a mass of 546 kg and is eight metres in length.
It was built in two years by a team of 200 engineers, according to the company.
The space technology startup, founded by former ISRO engineers Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka in 2018, received US$51 million this year in a funding round led by Singapore sovereign fund GIC.
It has raised US$68 million in funds so far.-Bernama