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Sriharikota now has the nation’s first launch pad that was created and is run by a private company.
Key Highlights
- In 2020, Agnikul Cosmos and ISRO entered into a contract as part of the IN-SPACe effort, giving Agnikul permission to construct Agnibaan and its launch pads.
- The Agnikul launch pad is India’s first and only private launch vehicle launch pad.
- The facility was created at the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) in Sriharikota and was designed by Agnikul with assistance from ISRO and IN-SPACe.
- There are two sections of the facility, and they are separated by 4 km.
- The Agnikul mission control centre (AMC) and the Agnikul launch pad (ALP) (AMCC).
- It also has the ability to exchange crucial information with ISRO’s Mission Control Center. Vikram-S is India’s first privately produced rocket, and the first launch was carried out under Mission Prarambh.
Agnikul Cosmos
- Agnikul’s highly adaptable, two-stage launch vehicle, Agnibaan, was the first Indian business to clinch a contract with ISRO.
- It supports plug-and-play configuration and can carry up to 100 kg of payload into low-earth orbits, which are 700 km high.
- Agnilet, the first single-piece 3-D printed engine produced entirely in India by Agnikul, was successfully test-fired in early 2021.
Agnikul
- Agnikul is an IIT Madras incubated startup that was founded in 2017 by Srinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM, and Professor S.R. Chakravarthy. In December 2020, Agnikul became the first Indian business to sign an agreement with ISRO.
- This agreement, sanctioned under the IN-SPACe initiative, granted Agnikul access to the Indian space agency’s expertise and facilities to build Agnibaan and its launchpads.
