Skyroot's Vikram-1 Launches India's First Private Orbital Mission

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Skyroot Aerospace after the company's Vikram-1 rocket reached orbit Thursday. The launch, called Mission Aagaman, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. It placed its payload at roughly 450 kilometers above Earth.

Vikram-1 is a carbon-composite rocket. Skyroot said all flight stages and module firings executed as planned. The company is now one of the first private Indian firms to achieve orbital insertion.

Modi called the success a sign of India's growing private space capabilities in a statement. Skyroot founder Pawan Chandana responded by thanking the space agency and the team behind the rocket.