Tag: Agnikul

A second Indian rocket startup completes suborbital launch

9:34 am

Agnikul's first suborbital test launch
Yesterday’s launch. Click for original image.

The Indian rocket startup Agnikul Cosmos yesterday successfully completed a suborbital test launch, flying a prototype stage using a single 3-D printed engine that lifted off from India’s Sriharikota spaceport on its eastern coast. From the first link:

All the mission objectives of this controlled vertical ascent flight were met and performance was nominal. The vehicle was completely designed in-house and was powered by the world’s first single piece 3d printed engine and also happens to be India’s first flight with a semi cryo engine.

The company claims this launch took place at its privately built launchpad, but that pad is located south of ISRO’s Sriharikota spaceport. Did it shift the launch back to Sriharikota, or are the reports incorrect? It is not clear.

Another Indian rocket startup, Skyroot, completed a similar suborbital test launch in November 2022, and has since followed this up with static fire tests of the upper stage of its Vikram-1 rocket.

Both companies hope to complete their first orbital launches before the end of 2025.

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Indian rocket startup to attempt suborbital test launch this week

9:30 am

India's spaceports
India’s spaceports

Agnikul, one of the two rocket startups in India attempting to enter the launch market, is targeting March 22, 2024 for the first suborbital test launch of its Agnibaan rocket, lifting off from its own private launch site off the eastern coast of India.

Agnikul Cosmos is all set to conduct the maiden launch of the Agnibaan launch vehicle on Friday. The maiden test is aimed at validating the working of the first stage of the rocket that will power the vehicle in future missions.

Dubbed Agnibaan SOrTeD, the Sub Orbital Technology Demonstrator mission will see the maiden launch from India’s first private launchpad which has been developed with assistance from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The map shows the location of Agnikul’s launch site, south of ISRO’s long established spaceport at Sriharikota. The third spaceport at India’s southern tip is a new facility being built by ISRO.

If this launch is successful, Agnikul will have caught up with the other Indian rocket startup Skyroot, which conducted its own suborbital test launch in November 2022.

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India to do 19 launches through March 2025

9:41 am

India's planned launches through March 2025

According to India’s space bureaucracy IN-SPACe, that nation has planned as many as 19 launches through March 2025.

The image to the right shows the manifest that IN-SPACe released. That agency is tasked with encouraging India’s private and independnt space industry, and it claims that 30 missions in total are planned, with half by commercial companies. This number however includes payloads and suborbital test missions, not just orbital launches. Based on the manifest to the right it appears that 19 of these missions are launches, with six being entirely private launches. One of those private launches, the first of Agnikul’s commercial Agnibaan rocket, will be suborbital.

It thus appears that in 2024 India hopes to complete 14 orbital launches. If so, this would double that nation’s previous record of seven launches in a single year. This schedule is very aspirational, with those six entirely commercial launches likely not all happening as planned.

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India rocket startup Agnikul raises $26.7 million in new private investment capital

9:01 am

The new colonial movement: The Indian rocket startup Agnikul has now raised an additional $26.7 million in private investment capital, bringing its total cash on hand now to about $40 million.

The company hopes to complete the first suborbital launch of its Vikram-S rocket in mid-November. If successful, it will be the second private rocket startup in India to do it, joining Skyroot, which did its first suborbital test flight last year. Both companies plan orbital versions of these rockets, and are also likely bidding to take over the SSLV (Small Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket from India’s space agency ISRO. The Modi government is offering to literally give it to a private company to operate for profit.

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Rocket startup Agnikul Cosmos opens first commercial launchpad in India

9:09 am

Capitalism in space: The Indian rocket startup Agnikul Cosmos has completed construction on the first privately owned launchpad in India, with the first suborbital launch planned before the end of this year.

Agnikul’s infrastructure comprises a launchpad and a Mission Control center 4 kilometres away, both within ISRO’s facilities on the island located off the coast of Chennai. The space pad was designed by Agnikul, constructed over two months, and is a part of the MoU signed between ISRO and Agnikul (among other space startups) under the new regulatory authority IN-SPACe’s first batch of support projects for private companies from ISRO.

Currently, it is capable of launching Agnikul’s rocket, the Agnibaan. [emphasis mine]

The first test launch is apparently not going to be orbital, but a technology test of the launch pad, its fueling facilities, and the 3D-printed engine Agnikul has built for Agnibaan.

The highlighted words once again note the effort by the Indian government to emulate the U.S. policy in the past decade to transition from a government-run space program to a privately-run competing and chaotic space industry. This MoU (memorandum of understanding) probably resembles the first space act agreements NASA issued to SpaceX and Orbital ATK. The agreements gave private companies aid and assistance, but the companies retained full ownership of what they build, and were left free to design things as they saw fit, not as the government dictated.

That two different Indian companies, Agnikul and Skyroot, are on the verge of their first orbital launches signals that this policy is succeeding. Agnikul has tested its engines and built its launchpad. Skyroot has completed its first suborbital launch.

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