Some bunch of former ISRO scientists including V Gnana Gandhi who is an expert when it comes to cryogenic technology, in an interview with TOI he said, “ The technology demonstrator engine is definitely ready and has been fabricated. We’ve even developed the ignitor, but there’s a lot of work to do. He explained the engine would be compact and will be installed as an upper stage of the second launch vehicle the firm is designing.
Gandhi added, “It would have 60kg of LNG and 120kg LOX. It is being developed for a vehicle that can put about 300kg-400kg into low earth orbit, so it is a small engine. Given the complexities of liquid hydrogen and now proven efficacy of methane, we decided to go with LNG.”
Skyroot; the startup name is a Hyderabad based Aerospace company. And Skyroot is the first Indian private company to demonstrate the capability of building an indigenous rocket engine. Founded by Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, both former scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Skyroot builds small satellite launch vehicles (SSLV) for small satellites.
The prototype they made this time has been named as Dhawan-I after former ISRO Chairman, Satish Dhawan. We know ISRO is already making some serious names in the space field but so do Indian space startup’s we can say.
Gandhi has further explained that they’re waiting for the test facility to be ready. Once done, they’d conduct cold floor tests of LNG and LOX separately and after that, test the ignitor before proceeding for a static test, “It is important to test and see how LNG and LOX behave, and that’s the right procedure. So, we’ll first do that and then check the ignitor. And before doing the full static test — firing of the engine — that will see the engine burn for about 110 seconds, we want to do one for a shorter time, say, 20 seconds or so to see how the ignition happens.”
Naga Bharath Daka, co-founder and COO of Skyroot and Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder and CTO of Skyroot also explained many various aspects of this project and prototype.
But so far this prototype is a success but they added that however that the engine can only be called a success only after it clears all the pending tests which are scheduled for later this year.
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