ISRO tested CE20 Cryogenic Engine for the next mission of LVM3-M3

Photograph of Engine Test

The flight acceptance hot test of a CE-20 engine is successfully carried out for a duration of 25 s in the High Altitude Test facility of ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri on October 28, 2022. This engine is earmarked for the LVM3-M3 mission identified for the launch of the next set of 36 numbers of OneWeb India-1 satellites.

The cryogenic upper stage of the LVM3 vehicle (C25 stage) is powered by a CE-20 engine working with the LOX-LH2 propellants combination. This engine develops a nominal thrust of 186.36 kN in vacuum.

The major objectives of the flight acceptance test were to confirm the integrity of the hardware, assessment of subsystems’ performance and tune the engine for meeting the mission requirements parameters for engine tuning for flight operation.

Analysis of test data confirmed the satisfactory performance of the engine systems. This engine will be assembled to the C25 flight stage being integrated for the LVM3 M3 vehicle.