Indigenous high-thrust cryogenic rocket engine ground tested

India’s first indigenously designed and developed high-thrust cryogenic rocket engine generating a nominal thrust of 19 tonnes has been successfully endurance hot-tested for 800 seconds, ISRO said on Monday.

This duration is approximately 25 per cent more than the engine burn duration in flight, Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO said, announcing the test at ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu on July 16.

The engine will be used for powering the Cryogenic stage (C25), the upper stage of the next generation GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle of ISRO, capable of launching four-tonne class satellites. ISRO said the cryogenic engine of C25 Stage operates on Gas Generator Cycle using extremely low temperature propellants ? Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) at 20 Kelvin (-253 deg C) and Liquid Oxygen (LOX) at 80K (-193 deg C).

The 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 the Indian Space Programme. The engine design was totally an in-house effort with experts from different fields like fluid dynamics, combustion, thermal, structural, metallurgy, fabrication, rotor dynamics and control components working together, ISRO said.