CHENNAI, Mar 21: India will be scripting a new history when the Chennai-based Space Start-up Agnikul Cosmos will launch its first rocket Agnibaan Sub Orbital Technology Demonstrator (SOrTeD) from the SHAR Range, Sriharikota, on Friday morning.
The launch will take place from Agnikul’s own launch pad constructed at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota, at 0630 hrs tomorrow, Agnikul officials said.
This will be India’s first launch from a private launch pad located at ISRO’s spaceport.
The launch will take place in the presence of ISRO Chairman S.Somanath, IN-SPACe Chairman Dr Pawan Kumar Goenka and officials from the Space Spart-up, which was located at the IIT-Madras Research Park in IIT Campus in the city.
The launch of Agnibaan SOrTeD will be India’s first semi-cryogenic engine powered rocket launch and World’s first single piece 3D printed engine designed and built indigenously.
The Agnikul Launch Pad (ALP) was set up inside Sriharikota as part of the new reforms brought in by the Department of Space to accommodate everyone’s dream of going to space, according to the State-up Co-Founder Moin SM.
Agnibaan is a highly customizable, 2-stage launch vehicle capable of taking upto 100 kg to 300- kg to orbits around 700 km high (Low Earth Orbit) and enables plug -and-play configuration.
With a lft off mass of 14,000 kg, the 18 m tall Agnibaan is a Sasnkritwoord meaning ‘an arrow of fire’. Agnibaan can access both low and high inclination orbits and is completely mobile – designed for accessing more than 10 launchports.
Driven by LOX/Kerosene engines in all its stages, Agnibaan is configurable by the customer.
The key significance of this launch is that this would be India’s first liquid oxygen- kerosene rocket flight in India and that too from India’s first privately developed launchpad, in Sriharikota.
“More importantly, Agnikul would be flying its patented world’s most integrated single piece 3D printed rocket.
This will be a sub-orbital launch and not a sounding rocket.
This mission attempts to validate the guidance, control, and navigation system, the launch release hold mechanism, the entire command sequence operated by the onboard computer, telemetry and tracking–all that goes with a full orbital flight except stage separation”.
The next step post the mission would be post-flight analysis of all the subsystem performance.
The immediate future plan is to get ready for the orbital flight, Agnikul officials said.
Agnibaan doesn’t fly with the same number of engines all the time. The mission, the satellite and the launchport itself would decide how many engines go on the first stage, Agnikul said in its website.
The Agnikul Rocket’s Launch Pedestal was named Dhanush, also a Sasnskirt word, meaning a ‘celestial bow–from which arrows are launched”.
Agnibaan was built keeping in mind the capability to launch from multiple launchports across the world. So, the Start-up has built “Dhanush” – the launch pedestal – to support full mobility across all configurations of Agnibaan.
As opposed to (current versions of) Agnibaan, Dhanush is meant for multiple uses and is built with durability and transportability in mind.
Founded in 2017 by Srinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM, and Satya Chakravarthy, Agnikul Cosmos is the first company in the country to sign an agreement with ISRO under the IN-SPACe initiative to have access to the space agency’s expertise and its facilities to build Agnibaan in December 2020. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
