The high-profile alliance aims to develop a cutting-edge, satellite-based geospatial dashboard designed to revolutionize the monitoring, visualization, and environmental auditing of mining operations across all Coal India leaseholds and subsidiaries…..

The mission is named Aagaman, Sanskrit for “Arrival”. It marks the arrival of India’s private orbital launch capability for the world. The primary objective of capturing critical flight data foundational to creating a high-cadence, on-demand launch capability for the fast-growing global space economy. 

Bangalore, 2 July 2026 — Skyroot Aerospace today announced the opening of the launch window for the maiden test flight of its Vikram-1 launch vehicle — India’s first privately developed orbital-class rocket. Test Flight-1 is targeted for no earlier than July 12, subject to the completion of assembly and testing operations at the launch site in SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota, and weather, safety, and range clearance. The window extends till 4 August.

The single most important objective of Mission Aagaman is to capture the real in-flight performance data from every system on Vikram-1. We want to understand how the vehicle performs from lift-off through every phase of ascent. This data cannot be fully replicated through ground testing. It will help us validate our designs and inform subsequent vehicle development as we build a reliable, high-cadence commercial launch programme. The moment Vikram-1 lifts off, India’s private space industry will cross a threshold it has never crossed before.

— Pawan Kumar Chandana, Co-founder & CEO, Skyroot Aerospace. 

Mission Aagaman, meaning “the arrival”, marks Skyroot’s second mission following the successful suborbital flight of Vikram-S, the first private rocket to reach space from Indian soil, on 18 November 2022.

This will be partially commercial flight, with the company planning to commence full commercial flights after one or two successful demonstrations to orbit. Joining the test flight is a mix of domestic and international customers.

From a dream to build a launch vehicle in India to now attempting an orbital flight has been a journey like no other. With Vikram-S in 2022, we validated the foundation of our technology stack; With Vikram-1, we take our biggest step, yet toward a reliable, high-cadence launch programme built in India, for India and the world. This mission is designed as both a technology demonstration and a learning mission. This has been made possible by the collective confidence of the Government of India, IN-SPACe, ISRO, our investors, our customers and a dedicated team of 1000+ individuals.

— Naga Bharath Daka, Co-founder & COO, Skyroot Aerospace

All stages of Skyroot’s Vikram-1 have been successfully integrated and stacked at the launch pad.

The mission will gather critical data across propulsion, stage separation, guidance, navigation, control and overall vehicle performance, supporting the evolution of Skyroot into a commercially operational launch company.

Vikram-1 is a seven-storey-tall, multi-stage orbital launch vehicle built with an all-carbon composite structure and powered by in-house developed propulsion systems, including 3D-printed engines and high-thrust solid-fuel rocket boosters. Designed to carry small satellites weighing up to 350 kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Vikram-1’s maiden mission will target an orbit at an altitude of 450 km with a 60-degree orbital inclination. The flight-ready rocket was unveiled by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in November 2025 during the inauguration of Skyroot’s Infinity campus.

For India, the ability to reach orbit reliably and frequently is a strategic capability that only a handful of nations possess. Today, access to space remains a major bottleneck, with satellite operators often waiting months or even years for a launch opportunity. Backed by IN-SPACe’s efforts to open India’s space sector and ISRO’s technical infrastructure, Skyroot’s Cab to Space model aims to provide dedicated and precise access to orbit.

Satellites support services that millions rely on every day, from agriculture and fisheries to disaster management, communications, connectivity, navigation and national security. Frequent and affordable access to orbit is what enables these capabilities to be built and scaled within India.

The economic opportunity is equally significant. India’s space economy is expected to grow from around USD 8.4 billion today to USD 44 billion by 2033. Indigenous launch capability will be a critical enabler of this growth, unlocking opportunities for India’s rapidly expanding private space ecosystem. The emergence of companies such as Skyroot, India’s first spacetech unicorn, signals both the scale of investor confidence in the sector and the growing maturity of the country’s commercial space ambitions.

POEM, an innovative platform that repurposes the fourth stage of the PSLV into an orbital experiment module after the primary mission. It conducts scientific and technological experiments in orbit. Equipped with essential capabilities like power supply, telemetry, and command support, POEM enables seamless operations for on board experiments. By leveraging existing infrastructure, it offers a cost-effective and rapid development approach for diverse research pursuits.

Commenting on the POEM deployment Dr Pawan Goenka- Chairman IN-SPACe said, “The PSLV Orbital Experiment Module (POEM) is a practical solution deployed by ISRO that allows Indian start-ups, academic institutions, and research organizations to test their space technologies without the need to launch entire satellites. By making this platform accessible, we are reducing entry barriers and enabling a wider range of entities to contribute to the space sector. At IN-SPACe, our role is to create opportunities for such collaborations and ensure that India’s private sector can grow alongside advancements in space technology. Missions like these will be instrumental in capacity building by enabling NGEs to get their payloads space qualified, thus augmenting their future satellite launch missions.”

The POEM-4 mission marked a significant milestone with the deployment of 24 non-separable payloads, supporting a wide array of scientific and technological endeavours. Of these, 10 payloads from 10 NGEs were selected based on recommendations from the Standing, Selection, and Advisory Committee as given below:

The Technical centre of IN-SPACe in Ahmedabad provided critical support for this mission by enabling several payloads to undergo rigorous environmental testing, ensuring they met all mission requirements.

Developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), Proba-3 represents a groundbreaking mission in space exploration. The spacecraft is uniquely designed to conduct precision formation flying, with two satellites traveling in tandem just 150 metres apart.

The mission’s primary objective is to observe the Sun’s corona – its outer atmosphere – which plays a crucial role in determining space weather. The innovative approach involves one satellite (the Occulter) creating an eclipse-like phenomenon by blocking the sun’s center, allowing the Coronagraph satellite to capture detailed observations of the sun’s outer rim.

ISRO Chairman Shri S. Somnath highlighted the mission’s success, stating that the PSLV-C59 has been placed in a highly elliptical orbit ranging from approximately 600 km at its closest point to earth (perigee) to 60,000 km at its farthest point (apogee).

The name Proba, which means “let’s try” in Latin and stands for “Project for Onboard Anatomy,” aptly captures the experimental nature of this collaborative effort between ISRO and ESA. The mission not only contributes to India’s advancing space capabilities but also represents a significant step forward in heliophysics research.

Keynote speakers included Dr. K. Praveen Kumar (ISRO), Dr. Andrew Mattioda (NASA), and distinguished professors from IISER Pune, IIA Bengaluru, IST Trivandrum, and PRL Ahmedabad. Their addresses spanned topics from the Indian Space Program’s evolution to astrobiology and the universe’s physics.

“India is celebrating its maiden National Space Day on August 23, 2024, with the theme ‘Touching Lives while Touching the Moon: India’s Space Saga.’ On this day last year, the Chandrayaan-3 mission accomplished the safe and soft landing of Vikram Lander on the lunar surface,” said Praveen Kumar, Deputy Director at ISRO Headquarters.

“With the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, India became the fourth country to land on the moon and the first to reach its southern polar region. The space activities in the country were initiated with the setting up of the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) in 1962. The same year, upper atmosphere studies were initiated using sounding rockets at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) near Thiruvananthapuram. India’s space saga continues with scientific missions like the Chandrayaan series, Mars Orbiter Mission, AstroSat, Aditya-L1 and XpoSat, and other future space science missions. Indian space programme opens up new frontiers in space exploration and technology with the new projects of Bharatiya Antariksha Station in 2035 and Indian on Moon in 2040,” he added.

The symposium also featured dynamic panel discussions on cutting-edge space research and interactive student poster exhibitions, fostering a vibrant knowledge exchange and collaboration atmosphere.

The EOS-08 mission is focused on designing and developing a microsatellite equipped with advanced payload instruments and incorporating new technologies essential for future operational satellites. Built on the Microsat/IMS-1 bus, EOS-08 carries three sophisticated payloads: the Electro Optical Infrared Payload (EOIR), Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry payload (GNSS-R), and a SiC UV Dosimeter.

The EOIR Payload is designed to capture images in the Mid-Wave IR (MIR) and Long-Wave IR (LWIR) bands during both day and night. This payload supports a variety of applications including satellite-based surveillance, disaster monitoring, environmental assessment, fire and volcanic activity detection, and monitoring of industrial and power plant disasters.

The GNSS-R payload demonstrates GNSS-R-based remote sensing for applications such as ocean surface wind analysis, soil moisture assessment, cryosphere studies in the Himalayan region, flood detection, and monitoring of inland water bodies.

The SiC UV Dosimeter monitors UV irradiance at the Crew Module viewport for the Gaganyaan Mission and serves as a high-dose alarm sensor for gamma radiation.

The EOS-08 satellite is configured to operate in a Circular Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 475 km with an inclination of 37.4°, and has a mission life of one year. Weighing approximately 175.5 kg, the satellite generates around 420 W of power and interfaces seamlessly with the SSLV-D3 launch vehicle.

The EOS-08 mission showcases significant advancements in satellite mainframe systems, including the Integrated Avionics System, the Communication, Baseband, Storage, and Positioning (CBSP) Package. This system consolidates multiple functions into a single unit, utilizing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and evaluation boards, and supports up to 400 GB of data storage. The satellite also features a structural panel embedded with PCB, an embedded battery, a Micro-DGA (Dual Gimbal Antenna), an M-PAA (Phased Array Antenna), and a flexible solar panel, all of which contribute to onboard technology demonstration.

The EOS-08 employs miniaturized Antenna Pointing Mechanisms capable of achieving a rotational speed of 6 degrees per second with a pointing accuracy of ±1 degree. The mission also incorporates a miniaturized phased array antenna for enhanced communication capabilities and a flexible solar panel designed with a foldable substrate for improved power generation and structural integrity.

The satellite introduces several innovative schemes, including X-band data transmission using pulse shaping and Frequency Compensated Modulation (FCM). The battery management system employs SSTCR-based charging and bus regulation at a frequency of 6 Hz. Indigenization efforts are evident in the solar cell fabrication processes, and the mission’s thermal management system utilizes advanced materials like AFE BGA, Kintex FPGA, Germanium Black Kapton, and STAMET (Si-Al Alloy) Black Kapton to optimize the thermal properties of COTS components.

Additionally, the EOS-08 mission incorporates an auto-launch pad initialization feature, further demonstrating ISRO’s commitment to advancing satellite technology and mission management.

The successful launch of EOS-08 represents a major leap forward in India’s space capabilities, with its advanced technologies and innovative designs setting new benchmarks for future satellite missions. This mission not only strengthens ISRO’s portfolio of Earth observation satellites but also highlights India’s growing expertise in space exploration and technology development.

The ISRO-Chandrayaan 3 Team will be awarded the Vigyan Team Award for their contributions to space science and technology.

Former Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Professor G. Padmanabhan, has been selected for the Vigyan Ratna Award in biological sciences. The Vigyan Ratna Award recognizes lifetime achievements and contributions in any field of science and technology.

Anandharamakrishnan C, Umesh Varshney, Bhim Singh, Adimurthi Adi, Syed Wajh Ahmad Naqvi, Sanjay Behari, and Rahul Mukherjee are among those selected for the Vigyan Shri Award.

The awardees nominated for the Vigyan Yuva Award include Dr. Bappi Paul, Dr. Abhilash, Radha Krishnan Mahalakshmi, Purabi Saikia, Digendranath Swain, Prabhu Rajagopal, and Prashant Kumar.The award ceremony for all categories will be held on 23rd of this month, in conjunction with National Space Day.