VIKRAM I INDIAN ROCKET TEST FLIGHT - Demo Flight

Video from the channel Cortes do Space Orbit about Vikram-I, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 19:18. Language: Portuguese. Video type: Launch.

The video features, with live commentary in Portuguese, the broadcast of the demonstration flight of the Vikram-I, the launcher developed by Skyroot Aerospace, an Indian private company. It was the company's first orbital launch, and the rocket carried payloads intended for low Earth orbit.

After the countdown, the rocket lifts off with the steep trajectory typical of solid-fuel stages, reaches supersonic speed and passes the point of maximum dynamic pressure. The first stage separates and the second ignites, followed by the fairing separation, which leaves the payloads exposed to space, and the ignition of the third stage, also solid. Official telemetry shows about 4.6 km/s during this phase, and the broadcast alternates between tracking cameras and onboard cameras. After the third-stage separation, the commentator fears a collision with the upper stage, but it ignites, holds its attitude and keeps accelerating; speed reaches 7.13 km/s, with a brief loss of telemetry.

When the last stage's engine shuts down, the broadcast declares the flight complete in orbit and payload separation begins. The commentator stresses that Skyroot reaches orbit on its first attempt, something uncommon for a new launcher.