Skyroot Aerospace: 1st Indian Private Company to Test-Fire Full Solid Propulsion Rocket Stage

Skyroot Aerospace recently became the first private company in India to test-fire a full Solid propulsion rocket stage. Skyroot Aerospace successfully test-fired ‘Kalam-5’, a solid propulsion rocket stage.

Key Points

• The propulsion stage rocket was designed, developed, and tested by the company.
• Kalam-5 is built with an advanced carbon composite structure in a fully automated process.
• The solid propulsion rocket stage uses 9 different manufacturing processes, 15 different advanced materials and has zero moving parts.
• The successful test firing of Kalam-5 has given confidence to the company for its Vikram-I vehicle development.
• Vikram-1 launch vehicle’s third stage test firing (Kalam-100) is planned in a few months at ISRO facilities.
• ‘Vikram-I’ is the first launch vehicle of the company that is under construction.
• The company is targeting to launch by December 2021 with the help of ISRO.
• Kalam-5 is a demonstrator solid rocket propulsion stage that has the same materials, propellant, and interfaces as the three solid propulsion stages of the Vikram-1 launch vehicle.
• Kalam -5 is designed to take 66 atmospheres of combustion pressure and 30000C temperature and gives a peak sea-level thrust of 5.3kN.

Skyroot Aerospace

It is a private aerospace manufacturer of the country and is a commercial launch service provider based in Hyderabad. The company was founded in the year 2018 and first came to the spotlight after testing Raman, an upper-stage rocket engine in August 2020. The company is planning and working towards launching its own series of Vikram small lift launch vehicles.