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Vikas engine

Vikas engine

  • The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted the third long-duration hot test on the Vikas Engine that would launch the ambitious Gaganyaan programme.
  • The engine was fired for a duration of 240 seconds at the engine test facility of ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu.
  • The Vikas Engine has been tested for the core L110 liquid stage of the human-rated GSLV MkIII vehicle.

Vikas Engine:

  • Vikas Engine is a liquid fuelled rocket engine indigenously developed by ISRO, India.
  • It is named after Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai, India’s renowned space scientist, is used in the PSLV and GSLV vehicles for space launching satellites
  • Vikas engines are employed in the second stage of PSLV as well as the second and the four strap-on stages of the GSLV and in twin-engine core liquid stage (L110) of GSLV Mk-III.
  • Fuel : UDMH (Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine) + N2O4

Gaganyaan:

  • Gaganyaan is ISRO’s first human space flight programme.
  • It is to send a three-member crew to space for a period of five to seven days by 2022.
  • The Gaganyaan spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit (LEO) of 300-400 kilometres.
  • Gaganyaan is significant because it is the first indigenous mission that will send Indian astronauts to space.
  • If it succeeds, India will be the fourth country to have sent a human to space, the other three being the US, Russia and China.
  • ISRO is developing the spacecraft and Russia is helping in the training of the astronauts.
  • GSLV Mk III, also called the LVM-3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3,) the three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability.

GSLV Mk III:

  • It is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO.
  • The vehicle has two solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster and a cryogenic upper stage.
  • It is designed to carry 4 ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is about twice the capability of the GSLV Mk II.
  • The two strap-on motors of GSLV Mk III are located on either side of its core liquid booster.
  • It uses two S200 solid rocket boosters to provide the huge amount of thrust required for lift off. The S200 was developed at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.
  • Crew module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment was also carried out in this flight.

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