ISRO TRIES SCRAMJETS
India on Sunday joined an elite club of space-faring nations by successfully test-firing from Sriharikota its first Scramjet rocket engine, which will use oxygen from the atmosphere, cutting the cost of satellite launches.
CHENNAI: India on Sunday successfully tested its own scramjet or air breathing engine with the launch of a rocket, said a senior official of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).
“The mission was successful. Two scramjet engines were tested during the flight,” the official said. He said that as scheduled at 6am, the two stage/engine RH-560 sounding rocket took off from the rocket port located at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
“This is a baby step for us. It will take more than a decade to develop an engine to power a rocket. Currently no other country flies its rocket powered by a scramjet engine,” K Sivan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) said.
He said the testing of the scramjet engine is part of India’s Make in India programme and Isro has developed several technologies like a reusable launch vehicle and others as a part of this scheme.
The scramjet engine, used only during the atmospheric phase of the rocket’s flight, will help in bringing down the launch cost by reducing the amount of oxidiser to be carried along with the fuel.
Later, the Isro in a statement said: “With this flight, critical technologies such as ignition of air breathing engines at supersonic speed, holding the flame at supersonic speed, air intake mechanism and fuel injection systems have been successfully demonstrated.”
“India is the fourth country to demonstrate the flight testing of scramjet engine. The successful technology demonstration of air-breathing scramjet engines in flight is a modest yet important milestone,” Isro said.