Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace has completed a static fire test of the third stage of its Vikram-1 launch vehicle. The test marks a step forward in the company’s efforts to manufacture and deploy its private commercial launch system into low Earth orbit.
The third stage, named Kalam-100, was fired for over 102 seconds. According to a company press release, the stage generates a peak vacuum thrust of 100 kN and operates at an area ratio of 60 during flight. The test included the use of a flex nozzle to enable thrust vector control.
The test was conducted at the Solar Group’s testbed in Nagpur. Solar Group also supported the manufacturing process by providing casting for the third stage. The company holds a minority investment in Skyroot.
Skyroot stated that its in-house developed automatic launch computer and flight avionics suite—excluding the chipset—were part of the test. The equipment tested included a head-mounted safe arm (HMSA) developed to support safe stage operations. The previous fixed-nozzle static fire test used over 150 sensor data channels to collect performance metrics, according to the company.
Skyroot Aerospace has received investment from several entities including Singapore’s GIC and Temasek, the founders of Greenko Group, Meraki Labs, Sherpalo Ventures, Worldquant Ventures, AUM Ventures, and Graph Ventures.
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