Cryogenic engine — ISRO reaches a milestone

The firing carried out at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendraguri, however, had provided voluminous data that would be analysed to pin-point the anomaly during the test and take suitable corrective action, ISRO said in a release.

Besides developing simultaneous the cryogenic engine that would inject communication satellites into geosynchronous orbit, ISRO is acquiring seven cryogenic engines from Russia for its GSLV programme scheduled to take off from the middle of this year when the first launch has been planned.

ISRO said test firing of the first indigenous cryogenic engine had several accomplishments. They included fabrication, assembly and integration of the complete cryogenic engine, validation and commissioning of the test stand, chill down trials of the engine and associated system, production of cryogenic propellants to required specifications and validation of appropriate safety procedures, besides collection of data during the 15 second testing.

The test on Wednesday also marked the beginning of a series of ground qualification trials of the engine that would be carried out during the next several months.

After the engine was moved to the test stand on December 23 last year elaborate trials with cryogenic propellants were carried out as part of final preparation and checks prior to the conduct of the test.