India Launches Its First Private Launchpad For Space Missions

Bengaluru: Marking a significant advancement for the Indian space sector, Agnikul Cosmos, a private company has unveiled its own rocket launch pad and mission control centre. This breakthrough from the Chennai-based rocket company will enable them to launch their own rockets into orbit. The Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota is home to this private facility, which is also India’s first of its kind.

Dr. S. Somanath, the chairman of ISRO, senior ISRO officials, and the Agnikul team officially inaugurated the new facility on Monday. It is designed by Agnikul and executed with assistance from IN-SPACe (the government entity which supports and promotes private space firms in India). This facility comprises two sections – Agnikul Launchpad (ALP) and Agnikul Mission Control Centre(AMCC).

This launchpad will be used for Agnikul’s inaugural launch, which will be a vertical, controlled, and guided mission.

The company’s Agnibaan rocket is a highly adaptable, two-stage launch vehicle that can carry up to 100 kg of cargo into low Earth orbits at 700 km altitude and supports plug-and-play configuration.

Meanwhile, there have been numerous start-ups in the space industry in India. Recently, the country’s first privately manufactured rocket was sent into space, and satellites made by Indian companies were launched on the country’s PSLV rocket, which is its workhorse.

This is advanced by the statement from Agnikul, as it would be India’s sixth operational rocket launchpad. For its huge orbital rockets, ISRO has two primary launchpads in Sriharikota, and it also has a Sounding rocket complex for its smaller, sub-orbital rockets. Small-sounding (sub-orbital) rockets can be launched from ISRO’s main site in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. In addition, the Indian government is constructing a second spaceport for tiny orbital rockets in Tamil Nadu’s Kulasekarapattinam, which is located closer to the point of the Indian peninsula.