BANGALORE, Apr 27:
With the development of indigenous cryogenic engines to launch heavier payload into space almost complete, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be setting up a production line at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) here to augment the production capacity.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 7th Annual Air Chief Marshal L M Khatre Memorial Lecture here today, ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan said ISRO will spend Rs 139 crore for the purpose and the facility will be ready in three years.
‘This is one more work centre for production of Cryogenic engine. It will produce complex components. We are producing, in our own facility, the structures, and assembling the cryogenic engine.
‘The HAL line will help us fabricate components required for
cryogenic engine using the expertise developed by HAL. The idea is if we have one more work centre, the capacity can be increased as we require more capacity,’ he said.
Earlier, delivering the lecture, Dr Radhakrishnan said the Cryogenic engine stage for GSLV Mk-III which will be launched during July/August this year was ready and would be moved from Mahendragiri facility in Kerala to the ISRO’s spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on May 15.
‘We have rectified the mistakes from past failures of GSLV launches. It had nothing to do with the inherent vehicle but some components had caused the failures of GSLV launch in 2010 and earlier. We have completed the analysis of all the seven flight of GSLV so far and corrected all the faults and ready for its launch later this year,’ he said.
The ISRO chief said on March 27 the ‘high altitude’ test of cryogenic engine and stage was conducted successfully at a newly created vacuum facility at Mahendragiri. One more test would be held soon.
‘Now we are ready for the flight of GSLV. Both solid booster stage and liquid core stage have been qualified for flight test,’ he said.
GSLV Mk-III will be carrying a demonstration payload GSAT-5.
It is capable of launching four tones class of communication satellites to Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
On Mars Orbiter Mission due for launch on a PSLV vehicle later this year, Dr Radhakrishnan said work was progerssing satisfactorily. ‘It will be launched by our own PSLV to a highly elliptical 500-80,000 km orbit around Mars. It would take a 300 days voyage to capture a Martian Orbit, 400 million km away, using its propulsion unit,’ he said.
He said during the current year, ISRO would be launching 12 missions in diverse areas of the space programme. It includes a PSLV mission that would carry the first Indian regional navigation satellite (IRNSS-1) in June.
In his speech, HAL Chairman R K Tyagi stressed that creativity and innovation are key to success in aerospace sector.
He said HAL is the biggest investor in defence R&D in India as it spent about 12 per cent of its turnover on research activities, far ahead of other PSUs and private players. ‘We filed 67 patents in 2012-13 and aiming for more this year’, he added.
He also said civil aircraft development should be a national priority as India is slated to emerge as the third largest aviation market by 2020.
Not only this, India has the potential to be an maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) hub due to the growing aircraft fleet, location advantage and availability of cost effective talent. With established quality systems, infrastructure, dedicated overhaul division etc. HAL can contribute in a big way in all these segments, he said.
Mr P S Krishnan, Chairman, Aeronautical Society of India (Karnataka chapter) also spoke on the occasion, largely focusing on the role of DRDO. (UNI)
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