Gaganyaan mission: ISRO completes human rating of its CE20 cryogenic engine

In a significant boost to India’s bid to launch humans into space under the Gaganyaan mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully completed the human rating of its CE20 cryogenic engine, an official said on Wednesday.

“ISRO has accomplished a major milestone in the human rating of its CE20 cryogenic engine that powers the cryogenic stage of the human-rated LVM3 launch vehicle for Gaganyaan missions, with the completion of the final round of ground qualification tests on February 13, 2024. The final test was the seventh of a series of vacuum ignition tests carried out at the High Altitude Test Facility at ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri, to simulate the flight conditions,” the ISRO said in a press statement.

“In order to qualify the CE20 engine for human rating standards, four engines have undergone 39 hot firing tests under different operating conditions for a cumulative duration of 8810 seconds, against the minimum human rating qualification standard requirement of 6350 seconds,” ISRO said.

All the ground qualification tests of the CE20 engine for the Gaganyaan programme have been successfully completed. The ground qualification tests for the human rating of the CE20 engine involved life demonstration tests, endurance tests, and performance assessment under nominal operating conditions as well as off-nominal conditions w.r.t thrust, mixture ratio, and propellant tank pressure.

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What’s the Gaganyaan mission?

Aimed for launch in 2024-2025, the Gaganyaan mission aims to launch a crew of three humans into an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bring them back safely to earth by landing in Indian sea waters.

ISRO has also completed the acceptance tests of the flight engine identified for the first unmanned Gaganyaan (G1) mission, tentatively scheduled for Q2 of 2024. This engine will power the upper stage of the human-rated LVM3 vehicle and has a thrust capability of 19 to 22 tonnes with a specific impulse of 442.5 seconds.

ISRO’s big plans

ISRO aims to set up India’s very own space station- ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ by 2035. Another big target is to send the first Indian to the Moon by 2040.

(With inputs from news agency ANI)