THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Along with the scramjet engine that was successfully tested from the Sriharikota spaceport on Sunday, the pride of the scientists at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Thumba too touched the orbit. Reason: The engines and sounding rocket were their babies.
Of course, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has a long way to go before ‘air-breathing’ rockets become a routine for commercial launches. But for the VSSC - ISRO’s nodal agency for launch vehicles - it was an exhilarating milestone in a 15-year-long journey spent on developing this elusive technology. “The engines and the Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV) were developed by VSSC. This was fundamentally an R&D test. The engines burned for five seconds in this mission and it was a success,” VSSC director K Sivan said from Sriharikota. The scramjet technology will help ISRO avoid carrying ‘oxidisers’ - which help the fuel burn - on board its rockets in future. Instead, the rockets will draw atmospheric oxygen. The oxidiser makes up 70% of the propellant mass at present.
Avoiding it altogether will make ISRO rockets compact with a lot more space for payloads. The mission costs too will plummet. ISRO’s real aim is a Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) launch vehicle to replace its expendable versions such as the multi-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).