President Droupadi Murmu to inaugurate cryogenic engine facility at Bengaluru’s HAL on Tuesday

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 26

India's quest to have a cryogenic engine of its own will end on Tuesday as President Droupadi Murmu will inaugurate state-of-the-art Integrated Cryogenic Engine Manufacturing Facility (ICMF) at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bengaluru.

The facility will cater to the entire rocket engine manufacturing under one roof for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The facility will boost self-reliance in the manufacturing of high-thrust rocket engines.

The facility is set up over an area of 4,500 square metre housing over 70 high-tech equipments and testing facilities for manufacturing Cryogenic (CE20) and Semi-cryogenic (SE2000) engines of the Indian Space Launch Vehicles.

In 2013, an MoU was signed with the ISRO for establishing the facility of manufacturing cryogenic engine modules at HAL, Aerospace Division. The MOU for the cryogenic engine facility was subsequently amended in the year 2016 for setting up of the ICMF with an investment of Rs 208 crore. 

The commissioning of all the critical equipment for the manufacturing and assembly requirement is completed. The pre-production activities which involve preparation of the process plans, drawings, quality plan etc. have also commenced.

The HAL will start realising the cryogenic engine modules by March 2023.

The HAL Aerospace Division manufactures liquid propellant tanks and launch vehicle structures of PSLV, GSLV MK-II, GSLV Mk-III and also stage integration for GSLV Mk-II. The Aerospace Division entering into the manufacturing of cryogenic engines is a major step in technology upgradation-cum-modernisation, the HAL said on Monday.

Cryogenic engines are the most widely used engines over the world in the launch vehicles. Due to the complex nature of the cryogenic engines, only a few countries like the USA, France, Japan, China and Russia have mastered the cryogenic technology till date. 

On January 5, 2014, India successfully flew GSLV-D5 with a cryogenic engine (made by ISRO through private industries) and became the sixth country in developing cryogenic engines. Space exploration in the future is mostly dependent upon the cryogenic technology.

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