Skyroot Vikram-1 Launches Successfully into Space | India's First Private Orbital Rocket

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(650) Skyroot Vikram-1 Launches Successfully into Space | India's First Private Orbital Rocket - YouTube

India's first space tech unicorn emerges as Skyroot Aerospace gears up for orbital launch

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"Skyroot Aerospace has become India’s first space tech unicorn after raising $60 million in a new investment ahead of the maiden orbital launch of its Vikram-1 rocket in the coming weeks.

The funding round valued the Hyderabad-based startup at $1.1 billion on a pre-money basis ...

The investment comes as Skyroot prepares for the first orbital launch attempt by an Indian private company. The Vikram-1 rocket was flagged off to India’s spaceport on the southern island of Sriharikota in April, and the startup is targeting a June launch after completing flight qualification tests and beginning integration and launch campaign activities. ..."

India's first space tech unicorn emerges as Skyroot gears up for orbital launch | TechCrunch

Skyroot co-founders Naga Bharath Daka (left) and Pawan Kumar Chandana (Right)

India Aims to Boost its Private Space Sector with Palki Sharma

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3D-Printed rocket engine in one piece in 72 hours: Indian Startup AgniKul Cosmos Successfully Launches rocket from Indian space center

Good news! It is getting more crowded in space! 😊

"A rocket featuring the world’s first rocket engine 3D printed as a single piece blasted off from India’s east coast in late May. Startup Agnikul fabricated the engine in just 72 hours and hopes the approach could open the door to “on-demand” rocket launches for operators of small satellites.

The Chennai-based company isn’t the only private space operation to rely heavily on 3D printing—both Relativity Space and Rocket Lab use the approach extensively to build their launch vehicles. What sets Agnikul apart is that its engine is printed in one go, rather than as multiple components that have to then be stitched together, which significantly speeds up manufacturing time.

On 30 May, the company carried out its first suborbital launch powered by the engine. A single-stage rocket lifted off from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota island in Andhra Pradesh, reaching an altitude of 6.5 kilometers before splashing down into the ocean. ...

The company’s first commercial product will be a two-stage rocket called Agnibaan, which will be 18 meters tall, feature eight engines in total and able to carry a 300-kilogram payload to an altitude of around 700 km. The launch vehicle used in May’s test was only 6 meters tall and featured just a single engine, making it roughly equivalent to Agnibaan’s second stage. ..."

3D-Printed Rocket: Indian Startup Successfully Launches - IEEE Spectrum Agnikul’s successful launch is a step toward “on-demand” rocket launches

AgniKul Cosmos (company website)

The Agnikul team stands in front of the company’s launch vehicle at the Satish Dhawan Space Center ahead of its first successful launch

Agnilet - A single piece, 3D printed, semi cryogenic engine.

Kenya launches first ever operational earth observatory satellite

Good news! It was a ride share on an Elon Musk SpaceX rocket. Bulgaria assembled the satellite.

2022 was a record year for space launches with 180 rockets successful lift offs. China is replacing Russia as number two space power!

Good news! It has become a private business domain! Collision avoidance in space is now a major preoccupation!

"2022 was a record year for space with 180 successful rocket launches to orbit — the most ever, and 44 more than in 2021. The launches were dominated by rockets from US company SpaceX and from the Chinese government and businesses. ...
SpaceX ... sent one of its Falcon rockets into orbit once every six days, on average, throughout the year. Its total of 61 successful launches is tied with a 1980 record, for Soviet R-7 rockets. ... There are now more than 3,300 operational Starlinks, by far the largest satellite constellation ever ...The growing congestion in space means that, between late 2020 and late 2022, SpaceX has had to move its Starlinks out of the way more than 26,000 times to prevent collisions with other objects in space. ...
China conducted 62 successful launches, 9 more than in 2021 ... Many were government launches, but a quickly growing fraction belongs to commercial rocket providers. Overall, China’s launch rate in 2022 was almost triple that of Russia. “China is replacing Russia as the number-two space power,” ..."

2022 was a record year for space launches 180 rockets lifted off successfully, with SpaceX driving the pace.

China’s surging private space industry is out to challenge the US

Recommendable! The acceleration of the space race appears imminent! I believe India is not very far behind and so on.

"China’s space program might have been slowed by the pandemic in 2020, but it certainly didn’t stop. The year’s [2020] highlights included sending a rover to Mars, bringing moon rocks back to Earth, and testing out the next-generation crewed vehicle that should take taikonauts into orbit ...
But there were a few achievements the rest of the world might not have noticed. One was the November 7 launch of Ceres-1, a new type of rocket that, at just 62 feet in height, is capable of taking 770 pounds of payload into low Earth orbit. The launch sent the Tianqi 11 communications satellite into space. ... Ceres-1, however, wasn’t built and launched by China’s national program. It was a commercial rocket—only the second from a Chinese company ever to go into space. And the launch happened less than three years after the company was founded. ...
China is set to build a new space station later this year and will likely attempt to send its taikonauts to the moon before the decade ends. ...
the [Chinese] government thinks its commercial space sector can be complementary to the state ...
The space industry is undergoing a renaissance thanks to two big trends spurred by the commercial industry: we can make satellites for less money by making them smaller and using off-the-shelf hardware; and we can also make rockets for less money, by using less costly materials or reusing boosters after they’ve already flown ...
In 2014, a year after Xi Jinping took over as the new leader of China, the Chinese government decided to treat civil space development as a key area of innovation ...
As a result, there are now 78 commercial space companies operating in China, according to a 2019 report by the Institute for Defense Analyses. More than half have been founded since 2014, and the vast majority focus on satellite manufacturing and launch services. ..."

China’s surging private space industry is out to challenge the US | MIT Technology Review An explosion of space startups in China is supercharging tech innovation, opening new markets around the world, and expanding the country's influence.