Two days back, ISRO officially announced that along with the Indian Navy, it has successfully conducted well-deck recovery trials for the Gaganyaan Mission. Today ISRO has announced that it has achieved yet another milestone for this mission.
ISRO achieves a major milestone! The C20 cryogenic engine successfully passes a critical test in ambient condition, featuring restart enabling systems—a vital step for future missions 🚀🌌
Link: https://t.co/rvDTB1hrZr— ISRO (@isro) December 12, 2024
CE20 Cryogenic Engine- that powers the cryogenic stage of human-rated LVM3 launch vehicle for Gaganyaan Missions has successfully passed a critical test in ambient conditions featuring restart enabling systems. ISRO carried out the sea level hot test of this engine featuring a nozzle area ratio of 100 at ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu on November 29, 2024.
This test was carried out with a multi-element ignitor and water injection system at nozzle divergent to prevent flow separation. The engine has undergone a test outside the vacuum chamber.
On its official page, ISRO explained that the main concern during testing at sea level includes flow separation inside the nozzle, which leads to severe vibrations and thermal problems at the flow separation plane leading to mechanical damage to the nozzle. To mitigate this issue, the flight acceptance tests for CE20 engines are currently being performed at high-altitude test facilities.
Earlier ISRO demonstrated vacuum ignition of the CE20 engine without nozzle closure. Now in this latest test, both engine and facility performance was said to be normal. CE20 cryogenic engine developed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre of ISRO is powering the upper stage of the LVM3 launch vehicle and has been qualified to operate at a thrust level of 19 tonnes. Recently the engine was qualified for the Gaganyaan mission with a thrust level of 20 tonnes and also to an uprated thrust level of 22 tones for future C32 stage, towards enhancing the payload capability of LVM3 launch vehicle.
