THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
Bengaluru, Feb 8: ISRO announced today that it has successfully carried out the ignition trial of the indigenous CE20 cryogenic engine powering the upper stage of LVM3, with a Multi-element igniter under vacuum conditions, which simulates the engine ignition in the vacuum condition of space.
This engine plays a vital role in India’s ambitious Gaganyaan mission, which aims to send humans into space.
The test, carried out on Friday at the High Altitude Test Facility of the ISRO Propulsion Complex in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu, simulated space-like conditions to evaluate engine ignition using a multi-element igniter. ISRO confirmed that both the engine and the test facility performed as expected.
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In a statement, ISRO said, “During this test, the ignition of the engine Thrust Chamber was carried out with a multi-element igniter in vacuum, under the tank pressure conditions that are expected to prevail at the time of restarting the cryogenic engine in flight. The performance of the engine and the facility during the test was normal and as expected.”
“Restarting a cryogenic engine is inherently complex and as part of the studies related to the restart operation, ISRO is exploring the initiation of turbopumps in bootstrap mode rather than the stored gas system. In this approach, both the thrust chamber and gas generator are expected to re-ignite under tank head conditions. ISRO has outlined a series of tests aimed at engine starts in bootstrap mode towards enhancing the capability for multiple cryogenic engine restarts during flight,” the statement added.
