Skyroot Aerospace, Indian aerospace startup successfully test fired an upper stage rocket engine “Raman”, India’s first 100% 3D printed bi-propellant liquid rocket engine injector named after the nobel laureate Sir CV Raman and became the first private aerospace company in India to test a rocket engine developed in India.
About the Rocket Engine – “Raman”:
i.Raman is a lightweight 3D printed rocket engine featuring a fewer number of moving parts.
ii.Raman can hurl a satellite of 250 to 700 kilograms into the lower orbits.
iii.Compared to the traditional manufactured conventional rockets, 3D printing has reduced the overall mass by 50% and the total number of components and lead time by 80%.
iv.Skyroot developed the in-house software for launch vehicle guidance, navigation and control functions and the avionics modules of Raman are tested onboard by the company.
v.The engine is capable of multiple restarts which enables the launch vehicle to insert various satellites into multiple orbits during a single mission.
Skyroot Aerospace:
i.The startup was founded by Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists and backed by founders of Curefit – Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori and Solar Industries.
ii.The company completed multiple test fires to qualify their solid propellant formulation.
Skyroot has raised around 31.5 crore from investors to develop a family of rockets named ‘Vikram Sarabhai’ which can launch satellites of about 250-700 kilograms into low earth orbits is working on to raise another 90 crores by mid-2021.
iii.The first launch Vehicle “Vikram-I” which hosts an Orbit Adjustment Module (OAM), which enables the insertion of multiple satellites into space, is targeted to launch in December 2021.
Key Points:
i.Opportunities for private companies in the space sectors encourage the startups like Skyroot, Agnikul and Bellatrix to build small launchers, with 3-D printed engines to reduce the cost of satellite launch and to utilise the opportunity to capture a position in the global small satellite launch market.
ii.India became a global hub for launching small satellites using the polar satellite launch vehicles.
iii.Frost & Sullivan, Research firm expects to globally launch more than 10000 small satellites in the upcoming 10 years.
Recent Related News:
i.NASA astronauts fly SpaceX spacecraft ‘Dragon’, the first private company to dock with ISS.
ii.Israel Successfully Launches New Spy Satellite ‘Ofek 16’ into Space Using Shavit Rocket.
About Skyroot Aerospace:
Co-Founders, CEO & CTO– Pawan Kumar Chandana
Co-Founder & COO– Naga Bharath Daka
Headquarters– Hyderabad, Telangana
