"We will be flying the student satellite in the Vikram-S rocket. The fee for carrying the satellite is under discussion with Skyroot Aerospace. The satellite was built by students and in some cases with their grandparents," founder-CEO Srimathy Kesan told IANS.Designing a payload by kids along with their grandparents was the fun element that was introduced this time around. There were a couple of grandparents who had bought the kits and assembled the same, she said.According to her, the satellite was developed in about 8-9 months and the 80 students were from Classes 6 to 12.Kesan said there are 80 boards on the payload and about 10-15 experiments could be done.On Tuesday, Skyroot Aerospace said it would fly its rocket Vikram-S with three payloads between November 12 and 16 from Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) rocket port in Sriharikota.The Hyderabad-based rocket startup has named the mission "Prarambh" ("the beginning"), signifying a new era for the private space sector.With this maiden mission, Skyroot Aerospace is set to become the first private space company in India to launch a rocket into space, heralding a new era for the space sector which was recently opened up to facilitate private sector participation, the company said.(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in)
--IANS vj/vd
(Disclaimer: This post has been auto published from IANS news agency without any modification to the text and has not been reviewed by editor)
