In a major announcement, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday said it has completed the final round of ground qualification tests of the country’s ‘Gaganyaan’ mission on February 13.
In other words, the performance of the key cryogenic engine to be used on board the LVM3 launch vehicles for India’s Gaganyaan has been qualified and now certified for missions that will transport humans into space.
“ISRO has accomplished a major milestone in the human rating of its CE20 cryogenic engine that powers the cryogenic stage of the human-rated LVM3 launch vehicle for Gaganyaan missions, with the completion of the final round of ground qualification tests on February 13, 2024,” the space agency said in a statement.
Gaganyaan is India’s proposed first human flight mission that envisions sending a three-membered crew into an orbit of 400km for a period of three days and bringing them back to Earth. The first unmanned Gaganyaan – 1 mission is scheduled in mid-2024.
ISRO’s heavy lift launcher, the LVM has been identified as the launch vehicle to be used during the Gaganyaan missions. Comprising solid, liquid and a cryogenic stage, these systems can be configured to ferry humans into space.
Life demonstration tests, endurance tests, and performance assessment under nominal operating conditions as well as off-nominal conditions thrust, mixture ratio, and propellant tank pressure are part of the ground qualification tests that were taken for human rating of the CE20 engine.
ISRO had in 2023 successfully executed the Test Flight Abort Mission after the first test flight was aborted at 8:45 am due to a problem in the engine ignition. The three main parachutes of Gaganyaan TV-D1 were deployed after the launch.