Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 rocket lifted off from the Indian Space Research Organization’s Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota on July 18, 2026, reaching a 450-kilometer low Earth orbit in a 16-minute flight and deploying six payloads. The mission, called Aagman, made the Hyderabad-based startup the first private Indian company to reach orbit and made India the third country, after the United States and China, with a private company capable of orbital launches.

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Vikram-1’s fourth stage, a liquid-propellant Orbital Adjustment Module, was powered by a cluster of 3D printed Raman-1 engines capable of restarting in a vacuum, a capability Skyroot used for precise multi-orbit payload placement. The company described it as India’s first fully 3D printed orbital engine.

According to Skyroot, the shift from cast and machined engines to 3D printed ones cuts production time from months to days per unit. The engines were built alongside carbon-composite airframes and modular avionics, which the company says are important for the economics of serving the small-satellite launch market, where it aims to offer dedicated, on-demand missions instead of shared rides on larger, fixed-schedule rockets.

Eight years to orbit

The launch came a day before the eighth anniversary of Skyroot’s founding. Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, both former ISRO engineers, started the company in 2018; it reached India’s first private suborbital flight with Vikram-S in 2022 before Saturday’s orbital debut. Skyroot became India’s first space-tech unicorn earlier this year, at a valuation of $1.1 billion.

Vikram-1 carried six payloads on its test flight, including scientific instruments such as a robotic arm for removing space debris and an Earth observation camera, alongside two symbolic payloads: a lab-grown diamond lotus and a gold rocket bearing micro-sculptures honoring Indian space pioneers Vikram Sarabhai, C.V. Raman, and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Skyroot plans a second test flight before moving to commercial launches next year, with a stated production capacity of one rocket per month at its Hyderabad factory.