For the small rocket maker, Agnikul Cosmos, Friday, March 22, will be a big day. The Chennai-based, IIT-Madras-incubated space start-up will test-fire its Agnibaan rocket, which features the world’s first 3D printed, and India’s first semi-cryogenic engine.  

“It will a big day for Agnikul,” Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe, told businessline today. 

The rocket is fueled by liquid oxygen (LOX), which is kept in the tank under cryogenic conditions and, kerosene, which is not. The 18-meter tall, 1.3 diameter wide rocket can take a 100-kg payload to an altitude of 700 km. 

Satya Chakravarthy, Co-founder and Advisor, Agnikul Cosmos, told businessline that the launch is significant in several ways. Apart from the 3D printed, semi-cryo engine, the rocket will be launched from India’s first privately-owned launchpad, located inside the Indian space agency ISRO’s Sriharikota spaceport. The launch pad was set up by Agnikul in November 2022. 

Further, it would be a fully guided, vertical ascent flight. After reaching 10 km altitude the rocket will begin its descent and will fall into the Bay of Bengal, about 30 km from where it started. The rocket also features a ‘thrust vector controlled, gimballed motor’ – which means its nozzle can be moved to different angles so that the thrust can vary the direction of flight and that the motor is mounted on a gimbal and can rotate in multiple angles. These factors help in ‘steering’ the rocket from the ground station.  

Furthermore, the vehicle is so designed that the hold-release mechanism will not let it take-off unless its engine develops sufficient thrust — which is not possible in solid-fuel-powered rockets. 

Dr Chakravarthy, who is a professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, said that Agnikul essentially hopes to test the flight trajectory control with this sub orbital launch. (In a sub orbital flight, used for testing rockets, the vehicle does not go to enough altitudes to attain orbital velocity, and hence falls back to earth without going round the planet.) 

The next step will be to do a orbital test, when the rocket will fly about 400-500 km above earth, Chakravarthy said. 

Agnikul Cosmos is one of the two Indian space startups in the launch vehicle business—the other being Skyroot, based in Hyderabad. Two more startups have applied to the space regulator, IN-SPACe, for approval, but their names have not been made public. Private rocket companies hope to provide launch services to satellite companies; they see big business because tens of thousands of satellites are planned to be launched in the coming years. 

Agnikul, founded by entrepreneurs, Srinath Ravichandran and SPM Moin and mentored by Chakravarthy, has so far attracted $ 40 m in funding from various private equity investors. 

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