Tamil Nadu

One of Tamil Nadu's space startups will launch its maiden rocket on March 22, making history. Agnikul Cosmos Private Limited, a space start-up with its headquarters in Chennai, will launch its first rocket, the Agnibaan Sub Orbital Technology Demonstrator (SOrTeD), from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

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It may be noted here, Agnibaan SOrTeD will be India’s first launch from a private launchpad. It is also going to be India’s first semi-cryogenic engine powered rocket launch and the world’s first single piece 3D printed engine designed and built indigenously.

The startup founded in 2017 by Srinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM and Satya Chakravarthy, Agnikul Cosmos became the first company in India to sign an agreement with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) under the IN-SPACe initiative to have access to the space agency’s expertise and its facilities to build Agnibaan in December 2020.

Also read: Private firm Agnikul to launch India's first kerosene-oxygen powered rocket 'Agnibaan' in March

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Commenting on the launch, Mr. Chakravarthy, co-founder and advisor, Agnikul Cosmos, and professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, told The Hindu, “This would be India’s first liquid oxygen-kerosene rocket flight in India, from India’s first privately developed launchpad, in Sriharikota.”

"This would be India's first liquid oxygen-kerosene rocket flight in the country, from India's first privately developed launchpad, in Sriharikota,” said Chakravarthy, co-founder and advisor of Agnikul Cosmos and professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

“Significantly, we would be flying our original world’s most integrated single piece 3D printed rocket,” he added.

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"This is a sub-orbital launch, but it is not a sounding rocket," he said further.

It is equipped with a gimballed thrust vector control and a full suite of closed loop feedback guidance and control. Because of this, it is the first private launch in India that needs a flight termination mechanism and a safety distance from the launchpad that was determined by doing tens of thousands of worst-case simulations.

With the exception of stage separation, Chakravarthy clarified, "this mission attempts to validate the guidance, control, and navigation system, the launch release hold mechanism, the entire command sequence operated by the onboard computer, telemetry and tracking."

Also read: Agnibaan rocket by Indian start-up to be test launched from Alaska

He made note of the fact that a post-flight analysis of every subsystem's performance will come after the mission. The preparations for the orbital trip are the nearest future plan.

Agnikul is the second rocket in India to be privately developed. The first rocket developed privately in India, Vikram-S, took flight from the ISRO launchpad in Sriharikota in 2022. Built by the Hyderabad-based startup Skyroot Aerospace Private Limited, the 6-meter-tall vehicle reached a maximum height of 89.5 kilometers before launching and splashing down into the Bay of Bengal around five minutes later. Prarambh was the name of this mission.

(With inputs from agencies)