New Delhi, Oct 29 (Agency) The flight acceptance hot test of a CE-20 engine was successfully carried out for a duration of 25 seconds in the High Altitude Test facility of ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri in Tirunelveli yesterday. This engine is earmarked for the next LVM3-M3 mission identified for the launch of the next set of 36 satellites of the UK-based OneWeb, whose first batch of satellites were launched early last Sunday. 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, ISRO said on Saturday. 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.