The unprecedented success of Vikram-1 on its maiden flight is yet to sink in for Skyroot Aerospace and its founders, Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, but the company is not pausing to bask in the glory.
In an exclusive interview with Swati Bharadwaj, Chandana, who is also Skyroot’s CEO, said that while he has received over 3,000 congratulatory messages from across the world, they have already begun preparing for commercial launches early next year.“It still feels surreal,” an elated yet exhausted Chandana said.
"The first launch being successful on the very first attempt has never happened at all in space history.
No private company with a new vehicle, without engines or anything being tested in another vehicle, has done it.
It's the first time in the world a private company has done it."The team is now reviewing the mission.
A large volume of flight data, including telemetry and visual observations from the launch is being analysed.“There is so much data to analyse,” he said.The company is planning another Vikram-1 mission by the end of this year.“As of now, the target is the end of the year,” Chandana said.
“It depends on our data analysis.
If we have to make some improvements, the time it will take to improve will decide the launch.”Reflecting on how satellite operators place a premium on launch reliability, he said, “When the first launch itself succeeds, that brings a lot of belief in the customer.
Their payloads are expensive and they cannot tolerate many failures.
This instils a lot of confidence in them.”Skyroot expects to begin commercial launches with Vikram-1 early next year after completing its test phase.
Chandana said the company's first scale-up goal is to reach a production capacity of one Vikram-1 rocket per month at some point next year, although that will not immediately mean one launch every month.“Our focus is to get to one a month first.
Then we will see beyond that,” he said.
Vikram-1 will remain Skyroot's workhorse in the near term, with multiple missions planned....
