Cryogenic rocket engine to propel India into elite club

Come April 15, India will join an elite club of five other nations having the cryogenic engine technology that would give enhanced power to its rockets to lift off into space.


On that day, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will demonstrate the indigenously developed cryogenic engine upper stage technology while launching the advanced Rs150-crore GSAT-4 satellite onboard the geo-stationary satellite launch vehicle (GSLV)-D3 rocket, Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan said. The lift-off of GSLV-D3 has been scheduled at 4.27 pm on April 15 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota.

The cryogenic engine for the Rs175-crore GSLV-D3 will provide almost twice the power to lift-off as compared to the existing capacity of rockets.

Isro scientists said a cryogenic engine was a rocket motor designed to maintain liquid fuels in liquid form at temperatures much below zero degree Celsius.

The engine components are also cooled so that the liquid fuel does not boil to a gaseous state while being fed to the engine. The powerful thrust comes from the rapid expansion from liquid to gas with the gas emerging from the motor at very high speed.

Cryogenic engines are known to be the most powerful rocket engines. The other five countries in possession of this engine technology are the US, Russia, France, Japan and China.