ISRO's heaviest rocket engine tested successfully on ground

The indigenously developed high thrust cryo engine was successfully tested for 800 seconds

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India's space agency, has successfully tested on ground its homegrown cryogenic rocket engine to power its heaviest rocket GSLV Mk-III. It can carry four tonne communication satellites into space.

The cryogenic rocket engine burnt on ground for over 13 minutes, nearly a fourth more than the time it would require to fire on a rocket when it hurls a satellite into space. The engine was tested at the ISRO propulsion complex in Mahendragiri, in southern Tamil Nadu.

The rocket is key to India's developing capablity for launching heavy satellites, an Isro statement said. India currently uses rockets of Arianespace, the European space agency to hurl communication satellites.

The engine will be used for powering the cryogenic stage (C25), the upper stage of the GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle of ISRO, capable of launching four tonne class satellites. During the course of developing the GSLV Mk-III indigenously, ISRO has had to face repeated failures or partial-failures.

This high performance cryogenic engine was conceived, configured and realised by Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), the lead centre of (ISRO) responsible for developing liquid propulsion systems for Indian space programme.

The engine design was totally in-house effort with experts from different fields like fluid dynamics, combustion, thermal, structural, metallurgy, fabrication, rotor dynamics, control components, among others working together. The fabrication of major subsystems of the engine was carried out through Indian industries. Assembly and Integration of the engine and testing were carried out in ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), a unit of ISRO.

LPSC has also developed a cryogenic upper stage of 12.5 tonne propellant loading and successfully flight tested it in GSLV Mk-II vehicle on January 5, 2014. Compared to this stage, the C25 stage has a higher propellant loading (27 tonnes vs 12.5 tonnes) and higher engine thrust (19 tonne versus 7.5 tonne).

The endurance test of the first high thrust cryogenic engine is the tenth test in a series of tests planned and executed as part of the development of the engine employing complex cryogenic technology, ISRO said.