At the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, the Chennai-based Agnikul Cosmos space technology startup recently inaugurated India's first private launchpad and mission control centre.
It was inaugurated on November 28 by ISRO chairman S Somanath. The inauguration took place just days after the launch of India’s first privately developed rocket Vikram-S.
With assistance from ISRO and IN-SPACe, the Agnikul Cosmos startup developed this facility. There are 4 kilometres between the Agnikul launch pad and the mission control facility.
It is designed specifically to support liquid stage controlled launches and help the ISRO range operations team to monitor flight safety parameters during launches.
This facility can share data and other important information with ISRO’s mission control centre whenever necessary.
From this Launchpad, Agnikul will launch the Agnibaan rocket for the first time. This mission, which will replicate Agnikul's orbital launch but on a smaller scale, is meant to serve as a technology demonstrator.