Endurance test on cryogenic engine at ISRO successful

Chennai: A 16-minute endurance test was successfully conducted on the indigenous cryogenic engine for geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) at the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) liquid propulsion systems centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu.

The test involved the firing of the cryogenic main engine with 7.1-tonne thrust for 1,000 seconds, simultaneously with two 200-kg thrust cryogenic steering engines, all mounted on a single block as used in the actual GSLV flight stage developing 7.5-tonne total thrust. The steering engines are used to control the flight path of GSLV during the third-stage thrusting.

The turbo-pump fed, regeneratively cooled engine for the cryogenic stage, is required to burn for a duration of 720 seconds in actual flight. The long-duration test conducted today marks the conclusion of the qualification of the cryogenic engine, which has been tested for a cumulative duration of 6,000 seconds so far in three hardware. A number of specially established facilities like assembly and integration facility, test stand, state of the art control centre has been employed for the successful assembly and testing of engines.

The development of the cryogenic stage system is also progressing well. This cryogenic stage, using a combination of 2-tonne liquid hydrogen and 11-tonne liquid oxygen, is intended to replace the Russian supplied cryogenic stage in GSLV.