India, July 18 -- India entered a new era of commercial spaceflight on Saturday after Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1 became the country's first privately developed rocket to reach orbit.

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The launch vehicle lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 12.05 pm as part of Mission Aagaman. About 15 minutes later, it successfully placed its payloads into a 450 km orbit, making India the third country to achieve orbital launch capability through private enterprise.

Standing roughly seven storeys tall, Vikram-1 is an all-carbon-composite launch vehicle designed for small satellite missions. It uses three solid-propellan...