Agencies
BENGALURU, Feb 8: A day after ISRO successfully carried out the ignition trial of the indigenous CE20 cryogenic engine, its Chairman and Secretary of Department of Space V Narayanan on Saturday said that the test would be advantageous to missions.
"We want to restart the cryogenic stage in the flight for mission advantages. So, we recently carried out a test towards that," Narayanan told PTI on the sidelines of the 15th Biennial Edition of Aero India International Seminar 2025, held in Bengaluru. On February 7, ISRO successfully carried out the ignition trial of the indigenous CE20 cryogenic engine powering the upper stage of LVM3, with a multi-element igniter under vacuum conditions, which simulates the engine ignition in the vacuum condition of space. This test was carried out in the High-Altitude Test Facility at ISRO Propulsion Complex in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu. According to an ISRO release, during this test, the ignition of the engine Thrust Chamber was carried out with a multi-element igniter in vacuum, under the tank pressure conditions that are expected to prevail at the time of restarting the cryogenic engine in flight.
The performance of the engine and the facility during the test was normal and as expected, it added.
Earlier, delivering the keynote address as the chief guest at Aero India International Seminar 2025, Narayanan said people often easily say projects are delayed. But the projects of ISRO and aerospace sector are highly complex and challenging, he said.
He also explained how when the cryogenic technology was denied to India, ISRO managed the designing and developing of the C25 Cryogenic Propulsion System for the GSLV Mk-III Launch Vehicle. Narayanan was then the Project Director and it was under his guidance the system was developed in a short time frame and successfully inducted into the GSLV Mk-III vehicle. Incidentally, C25 uses the indigenous CE20 cryogenic engine that had its ignition trial on February 7.
Narayanan said ISRO went on to create world records with the C25 project.
"We took the minimum time from engine test to flight, only 28 months when other countries took 42 months. We are also the only country that could do this with less than three engines, usually it takes 10 to 12 engines," said Narayanan.
He said this was possible because former chairman S Somanath authorised the test straight away after digital simulation.
"Had we failed, it would have meant Rs 1,200 crore loss, but today we made history," added the ISRO chairman. |
