GSLV-D3 launch using India’s first cryogenic engine possible in Dec 2009

Launch of GSLV-D3, using India’s first indigenous cryogenic engine, likely by end of December 2009.

GSLV-D3 cryogenic engine test photo

Bangalore: The GSLV-D3 (geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle-D3), India’s first satellite launch vehicle having an indigenously built cryogenic (supercooled fuel) engine, is now in the final stages of being readied.

Addressing the 23rd National Convention of Aerospace Scientists in Bangalore, K Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), however, did not specify a date for the launch of the GSLV-D3, which is scheduled for December 2009.

The GSLV-D3 will be used to propel the GSAT-4, India’s communication satellite, into orbit, about 36,000 kilometres above the Earth.

In the 3-stage GSLV, the cryogenic stage will be integrated in the third stage, or the upper stage. And, this cryogenic stage is being integrated and tested at the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu.

The ISRO had earlier conducted a developmental flight of the GSLV-D3 in July 2009 in order to “validate” the indigenously developed cryogenic engine.

The indigenous cryogenic engine is meant to replace the cryogenics engines made in Russia that is used as the 4th stage of the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV).

According to the ISRO, 49-metre-tall rocket GSLV-D3 will have a liftoff weight of 414 tonnes.

It is scheduled to be launched from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s spaceport at Sriharikota, called Sriharikota Range (SHAR), located about 80 kilometres north-east of Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

So far, only a few countries such as the United States, France, Japan, Russia and China have developed their own cryogenic engines.

Now, India is all set to join the elite club of nations which have developed their own cryogenic engines to catapult satellites into space.

For all the 5 earlier missions of the GSLV, the ISRO had used cryogenic engines made in Russia.

In a cryogenic engine, supercooled fuel – typically, hydrogen and oxygen – are used. Hydrogen and oxygen must be below 20 degrees Kelvin (-253 degrees Celsius) and 90 degrees Kelvin (-183 degrees Celsius), respectively, to remain in liquid form.

A cryogenic engine, which develops a thrust of 73 kilo Newtons (kN) in vacuum with a specific impulse of 454 seconds (7.56 minutes), can carry 2.2 tonnes.

The cryogenic engine, working on a staged combustion cycle with an integrated turbo-pump, will have 42,000 rotations per minute (rpm).

It also has 2 steering engines that develop a thrust of 2 kilo Newtons (kN) each in order to enable 3-axis control of the launch vehicle during its flight.