When Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on July 18th, it marked a turning point for India’s private space industry. On its maiden flight, Mission Aagaman, the rocket placed two satellites in low-Earth orbit and carried several experiments aboard its upper stage. It was the first successful orbital launch by a private Indian company from Indian soil.
Behind the mission stood a large team of engineers. Among them was Prithvi Sanghani, an aerospace engineer from a farming family in Gujarat who served as control-system lead for Vikram-1’s autopilot. Her work concerned one of the rocket’s most important systems: the technology that helped keep it stable and on course during flight.
Sanghani grew up in Jamnagar, far from India’s main centres of space research. She developed an early interest in engineering and wanted to work on technology with a wider national purpose. After completing an engineering degree in Rajkot, she specialised in missile technology and later earned a master’s degree in Pune. Her studies gave her a grounding in guidance, navigation and control, the disciplines used to direct rockets, missiles and other aerospace vehicles.
She began her career as a project engineer at the Defence Research and Development Organisation. There, she contributed to missile-development programmes and gained experience of complex defence systems. The work introduced her to the demands of precision engineering, where small errors can have large consequences.
A new opportunity emerged after India opened more of its space sector to private investment in 2020. Start-ups were allowed to build rockets, satellites and launch services in a field that had long been dominated by the Indian Space Research Organisation. Sanghani later joined Skyroot Aerospace, the Hyderabad-based company developing Vikram-1.
At Skyroot, she worked on the rocket’s autopilot control system. A launch may be remembered for fire, noise and spectacle, but its success depends on systems that operate largely out of sight. During ascent, the autopilot receives information about the rocket’s position, orientation and movement. It then issues rapid control commands to keep the vehicle stable and close to its intended trajectory.
Developing such a system requires far more than writing software. Engineers must model the rocket’s behaviour, simulate different flight conditions and test how the controls respond to disturbances and equipment limits. The system must then be checked repeatedly before it can be trusted in flight. Sanghani’s role placed her at the centre of this long process of design, simulation, testing and validation.
Mission Aagaman tested Vikram-1’s propulsion, avionics, telemetry, guidance, navigation and control systems. About 15 minutes after lift-off, the rocket placed its payloads in an orbit roughly 450km above Earth. The success made India the third country to achieve orbital-launch capability through private enterprise.
Vikram-1 is a four-stage rocket designed to carry small satellites into low-Earth orbit. It uses three solid-fuel stages and a liquid-fuel orbital-adjustment module powered by a 3D-printed engine. The vehicle can carry payloads weighing up to 350kg. Its first flight built on Skyroot’s Vikram-S mission of 2022, the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach space on a suborbital journey.
The achievement also shows how India’s space reforms are changing the relationship between the state and private industry. ISRO and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre supported the mission by providing facilities, technical advice, reviews and launch clearances. The result was not a retreat of the state from space activity, but a new model in which public institutions help private companies develop launch capacity.
Sanghani’s story reflects another change. Advanced aerospace work is drawing engineers from a broader range of places and backgrounds. Her path from Jamnagar to missile programmes and then to a private orbital rocket shows how specialised study can open routes into fields once seen as distant or inaccessible.
After her contribution to Vikram-1, Sanghani went abroad for further study, seeking to deepen her knowledge of aerospace technology. Her decision also reflects the international character of modern engineering, in which researchers and specialists move between universities, government laboratories and private companies.
Vikram-1’s success belonged to a team, not to one engineer. Yet profiles such as Sanghani’s help reveal the individual skill behind a national achievement. Rockets reach orbit through the combined work of specialists in propulsion, materials, structures, electronics, software and control.
As India seeks a larger place in the commercial space market, engineers such as Sanghani will shape its progress. Her journey from a farming family in Gujarat to the control system of India’s first privately developed orbital launcher is both a personal achievement and a sign of the opportunities emerging in the country’s changing space industry.
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