Rifath Shaarook

It's been a long time coming.

has successfully launched the SR-0 DemoSAT/DeployerX mission into its intended orbit. Finally had a proper sleep after weeks of intense preparation!

Yesterday, we achieved a significant milestone by demonstrating and flight-proving three critical systems, elevating them to TRL-9:

1. DeployerX (SR-1): Our indigenously developed non-canisterized nanosat deployer is a game-changer. Weighing just 400 grams, it's the lightest deployer for a 3.5 kg payload. More details are available on our company page.

2. Sequencer: This compact system allows us to operate multiple deployers from a single separation signal, manage redundant commands, re-initiate deployments if necessary, and capture debug info. It performed flawlessly.

3. SR-0 Satellite: This agile, low-cost nanosatellite bus is designed for quick, reliable missions. It successfully carried two customer payloads: a digital repeater and an ionizing radiation dosimeter.

We achieved seamless spacecraft separation (thanks to the deployer and sequencer), and within 10 minutes of powering on, we received strong signals from the satellite—a testament to the reliability of our systems and mission operations. With this new deployer system, we've already secured six customers for future launches.

A huge thank you to my team: Clinton Antony, the brain behind the deployer, and Keerthan Chand, the driving force behind the spacecraft. Congratulations on your new roles as VPs in your departments!

Special thanks to Mohamed Iliyas, Saqib Hussain, Sarvesh Ramprakash Thaneem Rayan, Pavan Sai, and Uchit Modi for their outstanding contributions.

It was my first mission as the CEO of my new startup and thanks to Dr. Srimathy Kesan, my Co-Founder and CSO for all the support in the last 10 years. We have done so much together.

We deeply appreciate the support from ISRO - Indian Space Research Organization, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), and IN-SPACe. I hope that the process with NSIL becomes more streamlined and supportive for commercial customers like us. Bringing in commercial players like Skyroot Aerospace and AgniKul Cosmos will undoubtedly make the industry more competitive and improve launch cadence.

Thanks to our customers, vendors, suppliers, and the entire space community for your unwavering support.

Stay tuned for another exciting announcement in a couple of weeks! Something is cooking. Let us cook.

Two years ago, It was one of the most traumatic days in lives of my team and myself. When a graph tells that u r f*cked.

The spacecraft we spent 1.5 years of our lives designing and developing was burning into pieces and re-entering into earth’s atmosphere in front of our eyes because of a launch vehicle failure.

AzaadiSAT-1 was a 10 kg class nano satellite demonstrating our technology in various subsystems. It was one of the most advanced nanosat buses developed in the country at that time. The team has spent 1.5 years of our lives and two months of sleepless nights in the last days to get the satellite ready for launch onboard SSLV-D1.

It was the first launch of SSLV, the flight went beautifully for first 3 stages but the final stage failed to ignite because of a higher than expected shock level, failed sensor logic and few other reasons. Result is inadequate orbital velocity to maintain stable orbit. The perigee achieved was too low that both the spacecrafts reentered the earths atmosphere within just half-an orbit.

The most heartbreaking part was, we watched all of this unfold in front of our own eyes from front row in Mission Control Center. I never even imagined in my wildest dreams that I’d be watching a launch failure in my life, especially with my spacecraft onboard with me sitting in Mission Control. I still remember looking at the mission graphs way earlier and calling out to my team mates that something was off-nominal. I told I don’t think we are getting into orbit today, 30 mins later our spacecraft was burnt into pieces. It was indeed a true movie like scene IRL.

But at the end, awesome team at ISRO fixed the issue and gave us a free ride onboard next launch and we built a bigger and better spacecraft AzaadiSAT-2 in just 6 months and achieved orbit and operated successfully. Huge thanks to ISRO, InSpace and GoI. Huge thanks to the God for the opportunity and lessons.

AzaadiSAT and SSLV-D1, you’ll be always remembered forever. You both taught us a lot. Funny thing is, we are launching our next satellite onboard the same rocket, SSLV-D3 in one week. Ad Astra.

I counted days, I counted miles
To see you there, to see you there
It’s been a long time coming, Hun.

1.5 years after AzaaiSAT-2 and exactly 2 years after (7/8/22) AzaadiSAT-1 where we saw rocket failing and satellite falling into the ocean right in front of our own eyes from Mission Control, this Aug 7, inshaallah we’re expecting to reach the orbit again for one more time. SSLV-D3/SR-0.

It’s been a soul crushing couple of years but Alhamdulillah we have learnt and became advanced so much. This is my first mission as the CEO for Space Rickshaw. Super excited and hoping for the best.

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We're so happy to announce our next satellite mission "VikramSAT" scheduled to be launched into orbit in Q1,2021. More details about the mission and goals will be released in upcoming days. You can send your names into space in this mission. Registration will start on August 15,2020. Stay tuned for the registration link.

ISRO to launch Amazonia-1 satellite of Brazil onboard PSLV next month At the 6th BRICS Summit in 2014, the two countries –India and Brazil had an agreement all signed which talked about setting up a Brazilian earth station to receive data from the Indian satellites.