alt Hacker NewsIndia's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on dramatic debut launch
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Only the third country to achieve this. Kudos.
There's another startup trying reusable rockets.
Extremely strong performance from India’s Skyroot with their Vikram-1 rocket. I can say that many in the space industry are looking for new launch capacity to LEO.
A small but bright light in an economy where manufacturing jobs are hard to come by (https://archive.ph/Haj8n).
4 stages feels like a lot of added complexity for your first launch. I assume it gives you more performance margin to drop weight/stages more often?
The first, second and third stages all being solid rockets also means India now has a global-range ICBM, with only a little bit of modification needed to make it storable in a silo. Privately developed, but I would be astonished if the Indian military isn't well aware of this new capability.
India's space work often went under the radar. Im glad they're getting the success and attention they deserve.
That's pretty cool. The phrase "3D-printed engine" stuck out to me as neat, too.
Fantastic news! Always good to see others manage achieve great things.
Congratulations!
And with $160MM in funding at a $1.1B valuation? I don't know about their debt, but to get to LEO in 8 years on that little money is extremely impressive.