CE20 Cryogenic Engine for the next mission of LVM 3 tested for acceptance

Nellore: The Indian Space Research Organisation said the CE-20 cryogenic engine, which will form the third stage of the LVM-3, India’s heaviest rocket, had passed its ‘flight acceptance hot test’ on Friday.

Isro tested the engine for 25 seconds at its high altitude test facility the propulsion complex at Mahendragiri on October 28.

The LVM3 will place in orbit the next set of 36 OneWeb India-1 satellites in January next year from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, in Nellore district. The LVM3 rockets are rated to place 4,000-kg satellites in orbit 36,000 km above the earth.

The LVM3-MK2 had last Sunday placed the first lot of 36 satellites in orbit in a flawless manner. The launches are part of a Rs 1,000 crore deal with OneWeb.

The engine that was tested on Friday uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.

Isro said the test was to confirm the integrity of the hardware, assessment of subsystems' performance and tune the engine for meeting the mission requirements.

Analysis of test data confirmed the satisfactory performance of the engine. The engine will be assembled with rocket before launch.