ISRO’s Giant Leap: Gaganyaan’s Gets Human Thumbs Up
Exciting news! ISRO achieves a major milestone in Gaganyaan’s journey by successfully human-rating its CE20 cryogenic engine. Get ready for India’s space odyssey as it gears up for the 2024-2025 Gaganyaan Mission and more space exploration adventures!
ISRO has hit a stellar achievement by giving the green light to its CE20 cryogenic engine, a crucial part of the Gaganyaan missions, as revealed by an official on Wednesday. The Gaganyaan project, a grand display of India’s space prowess, aims to showcase human spaceflight capabilities with a three-member crew orbiting 400 km above Earth for a three-day mission, concluding with a safe landing in Indian sea waters.
This breakthrough in the human rating of the CE20 cryogenic engine, powering the cryogenic stage of the LVM3 launch vehicle for Gaganyaan, comes after the successful completion of rigorous ground qualification tests on February 13, 2024. The final test, the seventh in a series of vacuum ignition tests, replicated flight conditions at the High Altitude Test Facility in ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri.
The ground qualification tests covered life demonstration, endurance, and performance assessments under various conditions related to thrust, mixture ratio, and propellant tank pressure. All these tests for the CE20 engine in the Gaganyaan program have passed with flying colors.
To meet human rating standards, four CE20 engines underwent a total of 39 hot firing tests under different operating conditions, accumulating 8810 seconds of testing—surpassing the required minimum of 6350 seconds. Additionally, ISRO has completed acceptance tests for the flight engine designated for the first unmanned Gaganyaan (G1) mission, scheduled tentatively for Q2 of 2024. This engine, boasting a thrust capability of 19 to 22 tonnes and a specific impulse of 442.5 seconds, will power the upper stage of the human-rated LVM3 vehicle.
India’s 2023 achievements, including the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s South Pole and the launch of Aditya-L1, the country’s first solar mission, have solidified its position in the global space arena. These successes have not only elevated India’s status but have also ignited enthusiasm in the private space sector.
Looking ahead, India’s ambitious goals include the Gaganyaan Mission in 2024-2025, the establishment of the ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ by 2035, and the monumental mission of sending the first Indian to the Moon by 2040. The journey to the stars continues!
Also Read: Unveiling SORA: The Next Frontier in Text-to-Video Technology