New Delhi: Vikram-1, India’s first private rocket by Hyderabad-based startup Skyroot Aerospace, is set to take off on 18 July at 11:30 am. The four-stage rocket is set to launch from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. The launch date was confirmed by the ISRO SDSC website, which opened registrations for the viewing gallery Thursday.
The launch is an important milestone in the Indian private space sector’s journey, with Skyroot becoming the first company after the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to be able to launch rockets.
Vikram-1, a seven-storey-tall rocket, is the first attempt by the eight-year-old startup to send a rocket into Low Earth Orbit. It is equipped with multiple foreign and domestic payloads. According to the company, the launch window was scheduled anywhere between 12 July and 4 August, depending on weather, safety, and operational conditions.
This will also be the second launch from Sriharikota this year. The last one was the PSLV C62 mission in January 2026, which failed due to a stage-III anomaly.
Titled ‘Mission Aagaman’, the flight marks Skyroot’s second launch ever. In 2022, the company launched Vikram-S in a suborbital flight to demonstrate the ability to reach space and enter into orbit around Earth. Since then, Skyroot has been working on building Vikram-1 and Vikram-2, both four-stage rockets designed to carry 350 kg and 900 kg payloads to space, respectively.
“With Vikram-1, we take our biggest step, yet toward a reliable, high-cadence launch programme built in India, for India and the world. This mission is designed as both a technology demonstration and a learning mission,” said Naga Bharath Daka, COO and co-founder of Skyroot Aerospace, in a press release shared earlier.
It’s official. 🚀
July 18. 11:30 AM IST.
Vikram-1. Test Flight-1. Mission Aagaman.
India’s first private orbital launch from the historic First Launch Pad at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota.
The countdown begins. 🇮🇳#Vikram1 #MissionAagaman #SkyrootAerospace #OpeningSpaceForAll pic.twitter.com/tGHCbQzsm8
— Skyroot Aerospace (@SkyrootA) July 16, 2026
What is Vikram-1?
Vikram-1 is an indigenously designed and developed rocket built to carry 350 kg of satellite payloads to space. According to the founders, it is like a ‘cab to space’, one satellite companies and institutions can use to send their payloads to specific, unique orbits. The design, with 3-D printed engines and a carbon-fibre composite outer structure, is meant for rapid production and manufacturing, said the company’s press release.
Skyroot Aerospace was founded by Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, former ISRO scientists, in 2018 in Hyderabad. The company is currently valued at $1.2 billion, making it India’s first space tech unicorn.
They have four facilities in Hyderabad, with their latest Infinity campus having the capacity to build one rocket a month.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
Also read: Vikram 1 is like a cab to space. And it is set to take off between 12 July and 4 August