‘This test is a major milestone in the realisation of the satellites,’ the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said as the flight acceptance hot test of the CE-20 cryogenic engine that will power the cryogenic upper stage of the launch vehicle for the Chandrayaan-3 mission was successfully conducted.
The hot test was carried out for a planned duration of 25 seconds at the High Altitude Test Facility of the ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu on February 24.
‘All the propulsion parameters during the test were found satisfactory and closely matched with predictions,’ ISRO said on Monday.
The cryogenic engine will be further integrated with the propellant tanks, stage structures and associated fluid lines to realise the fully-integrated flight cryogenic stage, it added.
Chandrayaan-3 interplanetary mission has three major modules: the propulsion module, lander module, and a rover. The mission’s complexity calls for establishing radio-frequency (RF) communication links between the modules.
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 is slated to launch in June and will demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
It will be launched by Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. The propulsion module has the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.