The Hindu : Front Page : ISRO achieves milestone

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 17, 2007
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ISRO achieves milestone

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has achieved a significant milestone by successfully testing the indigenously developed cryogenic stage that will be employed as the upper stage of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

An ISRO release said the test was conducted for its full flight duration of 720 seconds on Thursday at the liquid propulsion test facility at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. With this test, the indigenous cryogenic upper stage has been fully qualified on the ground. The flight stage is getting ready for use in the next mission of GSLV (GSLV-D3) in 2008.

The ground test for 480 seconds of the complete stage was conducted on August 4, 2007. The release said the cryogenic upper stage was powered by a regeneratively cooled cryogenic engine, which works on staged combustion cycle, developing a thrust of 69.5 kN in vacuum.

The Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) is the lead centre for development of cryogenic upper stage with the involvement of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and other ISRO centres, as well as several industries, both in public and private sectors.

‘A confidence booster’

Thiruvananthapuram Staff Reporter writes:

It is a fantastic achievement. It has boosted the confidence of the ISRO,” said its chairman G. Madhavan Nair reacting to the ‘completely successful’ test of the indigenously developed cryogenic stage.

When contacted by The Hindu here on Friday, Dr. Nair said, “`Now we are confident that we will be able to develop cryogenic engines with higher thrusts for use in the next stage of GSLV. This successful test was the result of the dedicated development work of our scientists for the last 10 years. So far we had been depending on Russia for the upper cryogenics stage. Now we will be able to do it on our own. This is a great milestone in our journey towards self-reliance in space science.”

The test conducted on Thursday evening lasted 720 seconds, he said. Dr. Nair was here to conduct a first-hand assessment of the new sites suggested by the Kerala government for the proposed Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology near Ponmudi.

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