Month after maiden success, Skyroot begins shipping 2nd Vikram-1 rocket hardware to Sriharikota | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: Barely a month after its maiden orbital success, Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace has already begun shipping hardware for its second Vikram-1 rocket to Sriharikota as it targets a second test flight by the end of the year.The company has dispatched the rocket’s first stage from its Infinity campus in Hyderabad on specially fitted trucks to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, while the remaining stages are expected to follow in the next couple of months, Chandana told TOI.Chandana said proof-pressure tests for stages two and three have been completed and propellant filling is under way before shipment to the launch site. The first stage, Kalam-1200, is named after the late Indian scientist and India’s missile man, President APJ Abdul Kalam. The second and third stages, Kalam 250 and Kalam-125, too are named after him.“Just 36 days since Vikram-1 launched, the hardware for our next launch is en route to the launch site. Team Skyroot keeps building and building – from India to the world,” Pawan Kumar Chandana also said in a post on social media platform X.The second test flight remains a target, with launch timing subject to readiness and approvals, Chandana pointed out.He said the company has not yet finalised any tweaks based on data from the first Vikram-1 mission even as payload and partner details will be announced closer to launch.Vikram-1 made history on July 18, 2026, with Mission Aagaman becoming India’s first privately developed orbital-class rocket to reach low Earth orbit, placing payloads in a 450-km orbit after lifting off from Sriharikota.The mission validated Skyroot’s carbon-composite structure, solid propulsion stages and 3D-printed engine technologies.Skyroot had already started building its second and third Vikram test-flight rockets even before its maiden orbital attempt, even as the rocket was standing at the ISRO spaceport preparing for launch.While the first Vikram-1 was manufactured and shipped from Skyroot’s headquarters, MaxQ, a stone’s throw away from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad in Hyderabad, the second test flight rocket has been manufactured at its 2 lakh sq ft Infinity Campus, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Nov last year. The facility is designed to support a future cadence of one rocket a month.Chandana had earlier told TOI that Skyroot expects to move to full commercial launches in 2027 after its third or fourth Vikram flight, while keeping only incremental improvements.