India's "Brave" Launches It to Space

India successfully launched its first privately manufactured rocket today from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in the country’s south.

Skyroot Aerospace, the rocket’s manufacturer, announced in a statement carried by the French news agency AFP that the 23-meter-tall “Vikram-1” rocket lifted off at 06:35 GMT and, after about 15 minutes, successfully reached its operational orbit at an altitude of 450 kilometers.

Having sent a probe into Mars orbit in 2014 and landed a rover on the Moon’s surface in 2023, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is aiming to independently send an astronaut into orbit by 2027.