Hyderabad-based Skyroot test fires India’s first privately developed cryogenic rocket engine

Hyderabad: Skyroot Aerospace successfully tested ‘Dhawan-1’, which is India’s first privately developed fully cryogenic rocket engine running on two high-performance rocket propellants- Liquid Natural gas (LNG) & Liquid Oxygen (LoX). This is a ‘Made-in-India’ cryogenic engine developed using 3D printing with a superalloy, reducing manufacturing time by more than 95 per cent. Cryogenic engines are […]

Hyderabad: Skyroot Aerospace successfully tested ‘Dhawan-1’, which is India’s first privately developed fully cryogenic rocket engine running on two high-performance rocket propellants- Liquid Natural gas (LNG) & Liquid Oxygen (LoX). This is a ‘Made-in-India’ cryogenic engine developed using 3D printing with a superalloy, reducing manufacturing time by more than 95 per cent.

Cryogenic engines are highly efficient rocket propulsion systems that use propellants at cryogenic temperatures (less than -150° Celsius). Fully cryogenic engines are suitable for the upper stages of a rocket. They have a higher specific impulse that enhances the payload carrying capability. This technology has been demonstrated only by very few countries.

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Hyderabad-based company has named its cryogenic engine- ‘Dhawan-1’ in honour of eminent Indian Rocket scientist Dr Satish Dhawan who played an instrumental role in the development of the Indian Space Programme. This test demonstrates the propulsion technology in the upper stage of Skyroot’s orbital vehicle Vikram-2.

LNG, which is more than 90 per cent Methane, is considered the rocket fuel of the future. Skyroot indigenously developed a mobile cryogenic engine test stand and tested the engine at a propulsion test facility at Solar Industries India in Nagpur.

With this milestone, Skyroot has successfully demonstrated all the three propulsion technologies in its Vikram series of space launch vehicles in the first attempt itself, Naga Bharath Daka, co-founder & COO, Skyroot Aerospace said.

The engine uses Liquid Natural gas (LNG) and Liquid Oxygen (LoX) at cryogenic temperatures as propellants, which are high performance, low-cost, and green. These are the rocket propellants of the future, and this test makes us one of the very few companies in the world to have successfully demonstrated this technology, Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder & CEO, Skyroot Aerospace.

“Designing, realising and testing Cryogenic rocket engine fully in the private sector is a great milestone for the country,” Manish Nuwal, MD and CEO of Solar Industries India added.

It is pertinent to note, in September, the Department of Space (DOS) has entered into a Framework MoU with Skyroot, which will enable the company to undertake multiple tests and access facilities at various ISRO centres and avail technical expertise of ISRO for testing and qualifying their space launch vehicle systems and subsystems.