@dawn.today: Indian space startup Skyroot Aerospace on Saturday launched the country’s first privately developed orbital rocket, a key test of national efforts to compete for a bigger share of the global commercial launch market. The Vikram-1 rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 0635 GMT, leaving behind a plume of fire and smoke, carrying several customer payloads and in-orbit experiments on its maiden orbital mission, dubbed “Mission Aagaman”. It successfully injected its payload into a 450 kilometres orbit about 15 minutes later, making India the third country to achieve orbital launch capability through private enterprise. #DawnToday

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Saturday 18 July 2026 09:24:47 GMT