Skyroot’s rocket Vikram-1 will carry to space a special message from PM Modi

NEW DELHI: When Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1, India's first privately developed orbital-class rocket, will fly to space at 11.30am on Saturday, it will carry a message for the universe from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.In a video post on X, Skyroot Aerospace said on Friday, “Among the payloads on Vikram-1 Test Flight-1 is something truly special—a handwritten postcard from Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi with the words, “Vande Mataram”. The handwritten card has PM Modi’s signature and has the date 26-06-26 written in his writing.While showing postcards written by several space experts and personalities, Skyroot Aerospace founder and CEO Pawan Kumar Chandana in the video said, “It gives me goosebumps to read the PM’s handwritten postcard (for our Vikram-1 mission), which will travel to space alongside handwritten messages from our team, investors, policymakers, and well-wishers across the globe, making Mission Aagaman a celebration carried by many hands and shared by millions.”In the video visible are space minister Jitendra Singh, Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, Isro chairman V Narayanan, former Isro chairman S Somanath and Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla writing special messages for Skyroot to have a successful mission.Skyroot Aerospace has raised a total of $160 million, becoming India's first spacetech unicorn with a $1.1 billion valuation. Big institutional backers include Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, Singapore-state investor Temasek Holdings, Google early-backer Sherpalo Ventures, and global asset manager BlackRock.Other notable backers include Arkam Ventures, Solar Industries India, Playbook Partners and Shanghvi Family OfficeProminent angel investors such as Mukesh Bansal (founder of Myntra/CureFit). AUM Ventures is among the company's earliest institutional investors that invested in Skyroot's Series A+ round in Dec 2021, at a time when India's private space ecosystem was still taking shape.The launch from the historic first launchpad at Sriharikota will see Vikram-1 carry technology demonstration payloads from Grahaa Space, Cosmoserve, DCubed and Skyroot’s own SCOPE, along with Cosmos Diamonds’ artwork “Cosmic Bloom” and a micro-art piece. The 18K gold rocket micro-art will carry micro sculptures of Sir C V Raman, Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Dr A P J Abdul Kalam into space.The Vikram-1 mission is designed to deploy payloads weighing up to 350 kg into a 450-km low earth orbit (LEO) with a 60-degree inclination.If the launch is successful, it will give the Indian space sector another alternative besides Isro's rockets to launch satellites in low earth orbit and will help India fast-track launches of small satellites.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.