Hyderabad Based Startup Skyroot Aerospace Becomes First Private Company To Test Upper Stage Rocket Engine

In a move that could provide long needed boost to the private sector space exploration, the Hyderabad based startup Skyroot Aerospace has successfully test-fired upper stage rocket engine named ''Raman”, reports Economic Times.

It has also become the first Indian private company to demonstrate the capability to build a homegrown rocket engine.

Skyroot has been founded by Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, both former scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

"We demonstrated India's first 100 per cent 3D-printed Bi-Propellant Liquid Rocket Engine injector. Compared to traditional manufacturing this reduced the overall mass by 50 per cent, reduced total number of components and lead time by 80 per cent. The engine is capable of multiple restarts enabling them to insert various satellites into multiple orbits in a single mission," Pawan Kumar Chandana, Co-Founder and CEO, Skyroot Aerospace said.

He further added that two of the firm's rocket stages are getting ready for test firing in six months. As per the report, the first rocket, which can hurl satellites of 250-700 kgs into a lower earth orbit, is expected to be launched by end-2021.

Skyroot has developed in-house software for launch vehicle guidance, navigation and control functions and testing for onboard avionics modules is in progress and the firm is targeting its first launch vehicle in December 2021, Naga Bharath Daka, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Skyroot said.

"Our first launch vehicle ''Vikram-I'' which is under manufacturing and targeting launch in Dec 2021, hosts an Orbit Adjustment Module (OAM) at the top which gives the final burn and inserts multiple satellites into space. In an ''Indias first'', we successfully test-fired its liquid engine," he said.