tl;dr: Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1 became India's first privately-developed rocket to reach orbit, successfully deploying payloads to a 450 km orbit on its debut launch Saturday—an unusual feat since most private orbital rockets fail on first attempts (SpaceX's Falcon 1 took four tries). The 22-meter, mostly solid-fueled rocket can carry 350 kg to low-Earth orbit, slightly outclassing Rocket Lab's Electron. The Hyderabad-based startup, valued at $1.1 billion with $160 million raised, plans larger Vikram-1U and Vikram-2 variants, aligning with PM Modi's push to scale India's launch cadence tenfold by decade's end.