ISRO conducts 'hot test' on Cryogenic Engine

After the historic launch of unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-I, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted the flight acceptance "hot test" of an indigenous Cryogenic Engine

After the historic launch of unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-I, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday successfully conducted the flight acceptance "hot test" of an indigenous Cryogenic Engine.

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The test was conducted at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Mahendragiri on December 18, the ISRO said in a statement here.

"This cryogenic stage will be used in the next Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle mission-- GSLV- D3," it said.

The indigenous cryogenic engine develops a thrust of 73 kilo Newtons (KN) in vacuum with a specific impulse of 454 seconds and provides a payload capability of 2200 kg to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) for GSLV.

The engine works on "staged combustion cycle" with an integrated turbo pump running at around 42,000 rotations per minute (rpm). It is also equipped with two steering engines developing a thrust of 2 kn each to enable three-axis control of the launch vehicle during the mission, the release said.

Another unique feature of this engine is the closed loop of both thrust and mixture ratio, which ensures optimum utilisation for the mission, it said.

The 'hot test' was carried out for a planned duration of 20 seconds during which the engine was operated in 13 per cent uprated thrust regimes. All the propulsion parameters were found satisfactory and closely matched with predictions during the test, it said.

The Cryogenic engine will be further integrated with propellent tanks, stage structures and associated feed lines to realise the first fully integrated indigenous flight cryogenic stage by the middle of next year.