Hyderabad: In a significant development, Skyroot Aerospace on Wednesday successfully test-fired the Stage-2 of Vikram-1 space launch vehicle, called Kalam-250, at the propulsion testbed of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), at its Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
The test lasted 85 seconds and recorded a peak sea-level thrust of 186 kilonewtons, which is expected to result in a fully expanded vacuum thrust of around 235kN during flight, the space-tech company said in its press release.
Vikram-1 launch is slated to be a landmark event for the Indian space sector as its first private orbital rocket launch, and follows the remarkable suborbital space launch of India's first private rocket - the Vikram-S by Skyroot in November 2022.
The Kalam-250 is a high-strength carbon composite rocket motor, which uses solid fuel and a high-performance Ethylene-Propylene-Diene terpolymers (EPDM) thermal protection system (TPS).
"This is a significant milestone for the Indian space industry, marking the successful test of the largest propulsion system ever designed and manufactured by the Indian private sector so far, and the first carboncomposite-built motor tested at ISRO," Pawan Chandana, Co-Founder and CEO, Skyroot Aerospace said.
"All test parameters are within expected bounds, and this achievement takes us another step closer to the upcoming orbital launch of the Vikram-1 rocket," he added.
"In this landmark test, we validated the critical system for the launchthe flex nozzle control systemduring firing for the first time, making this an important milestone in our journey. We have a few more milestones to cross and are focused on achieving them in the coming months to reach our maiden orbital launch of the Vikram-1 in 2024," Naga Bharath Daka, Co-Founder and COO of Skyroot said.
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