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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be inaugurating the new Infinity Campus of Skyroot Aerospace on 27 November at 11:00 hours IST. The Vikram I, the first orbital launch vehicle by Skyroot will also be revealed during the event. The Infinity Campus is spread across 200,000 square feet, and is built for designing, developing, integrating and testing multiple launch vehicles, with the capacity to produce one orbital rocket every month. Skyroot has already conducted a test flight of with its Vikram-S rocket in November 2022, which was a suborbital flight. The first flight of the Vikram I rocket is currently scheduled for February 2026.
The Infinity Campus is the second manufacturing facility for Skyroot, that also operates the Max-Q campus spread across 60,000 square feet in Hyderabad. Over the course of the past two years, Skyroot has been demonstrating the various subsystems of the Vikram I launch vehicle. The rocket features a steerable nozzle to control the direction of the thrust, as against flaps or rudders used by aircraft. The payload fairing has also been tested, which separates quickly while the rocket is moving through the upper atmosphere. This is the nose cone of the rocket that protects the passengers through the lower atmosphere. Skyroot has also tested the retro motors to separate the stages.
There is an incredible demand for small launchers with rapid turnaround times as well as on-demand launch capabilities. Skyroot Aerospace has the goal of making access to space as easy as hailing a cab. A number of New Space startups across the country are rapidly developing small launchers to meet this demand, including Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos, Ahmedabad-based Omspace, Bengaluru-based EtherealX and Hyderabad-based Abyom Spacetech and Defence. ISRO's newest rocket, the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) has been developed specifically to cater to this market. Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos are leading the charge, having both demonstrated their rockets in suborbital flights, with the first orbital launches scheduled for next year. Skyroot is open for bookings to Low Earth Orbit.
