Vikram-I: The rocket with a fiery roar
Are you an avid reader of science fiction novels? Do you love watching sci-fi movies? If the answer is ‘yes’ to both, then spaceships and rockets must have captured your imagination already. Well, here’s an interesting piece of news for all you ‘rocket lovers’. India’s first privately built satellite launch vehicle, Vikram-I rocket, has successfully completed the full-duration test-firing of its third stage. A rocket has to go through three rounds of fire testing before it is launched. Simply put, a full-duration test firing requires firing of the rocket's engines for the same amount of time they would need to burn during an actual flight to lift a spacecraft into space.
Vikram-I has been developed by Hyderabad-based space start-up, Skyroot Aerospace, co-founded by former ISRO scientists, Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka. It is the first space start-up to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ISRO for the agency's support in building rockets. Interestingly, the name of the rocket is inspired by Vikram Sarabhai, the Father of Indian Space Programme.
What will Vikram-I do?
This is a small-lift launch vehicle manufactured for commercial purposes. It will serve sectors like as telecommunications, space broadband, and earth observation. You must be wondering what a small-lift launch vehicle is. According to the definition of NASA, it is a satellite launch vehicle that can lift up 2000 kg to the low Earth orbit (LEO). The capability to carry this load or weight is known as payload capacity. Our Vikram-I has a payload capacity of carrying 315 kg up to 500 km of LEO. The rocket design is made of high-strength carbon fibre with 94% propellant loading capacity. Solid fuel, ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymers (EPDM) thermal protection system, and carbon ablative nozzle are some of the components used in launch vehicle. The engine used to power the third stage of testing of Vikram-I is known as Kalam-100. It has been named after former President APJ Abdul Kalam.
Brains behind Vikram-I
Vikram-I is the brainchild of the co-founders of Skyroot Aerospace, Chandana and Daka. During Chandana's five-year stay at ISRO, he worked on the GSLV Mk-III, India's largest rocket. He also served as a System Engineer for the world's third-largest solid rocket stage, S200, the GSLV Mk-3 booster rocket. Daka, the other co-founder, is an IIT-Madras alumnus who also worked with ISRO as Flight Computer Engineer. He created hardware for several computer modules that handle the launch vehicle's sequencing, navigation, control, and guiding operations.