The Indian space agency is gearing up to launch the next set of 36 satellites from UK-based Network Access Associated Ltd (OneWeb) in January 2023 by testing the critical cryogenic engine of its rocket LVM3.
According to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the flight acceptance hot test of the CE-20 engine was successfully conducted for a duration of 25 seconds at the High Altitude Test Facility of the ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri.
This engine is earmarked for the LVM3-M3 mission, which has been identified for the launch of the next set of 36 numbered OneWeb India-1 satellites, ISRO said.
The cryogenic upper stage of the LVM3 vehicle (C25 stage) is powered by a CE-20 engine that operates with a combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen (LOX-LH2) propellants. This engine develops a nominal thrust of 186.36 kN in vacuum.
The major objectives of flight acceptance testing were to verify the integrity of the hardware, assess the performance of subsystems, and tune the engines to meet the mission requirements standards for engine tuning for flight operations.
Analysis of the test data confirmed the satisfactory performance of the engine system.
This engine will be assembled into the C25 flight stage being integrated for the LVM3 M3 rocket.
ISRO’s commercial arm NewSpace India Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, OneWeb, Ltd. (NSIL) has signed a contract with OneWeb to launch 72 satellites in two phases for a launch fee of over Rs 1,000 crore.
The first set of 36 satellites orbited successfully from Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh on 23 October with LVM3 rocket also known as Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MkIII (GSLV MkIII).
OneWeb plans to build a cluster of 648 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) to offer its broadband services around the world.
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