Bengaluru: HAL's Cryogenic Engine Manufacturing Facility For ISRO's Space Launch Vehicles To Be Inaugurated Tomorrow

President of India Droupadi Murmu will inaugurate defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's (HAL) state-of-the-art Integrated Cryogenic Engine Manufacturing Facility (ICMF) in Bengaluru on Tuesday (27 September).

The facility will cater to the entire rocket engine manufacturing under one roof for ISRO, HAL said in a statement on Monday (26 September).

The facility will boost self-reliance in manufacturing of Hi-thrust Rocket engines, the statement added.

The ICMF is set up over an area of 4500 sq metre housing over 70 hi-tech equipment and testing facilities for manufacturing Cryogenic (CE20) and Semi-cryogenic (SE2000) engines of Indian space launch vehicles.

"In 2013, an MOU was signed with ISRO for establishing the facility for manufacturing of Cryogenic Engine modules at HAL, Aerospace Division," the statement said.

The MOU for the Cryogenic Engine facility was subsequently amended in the year 2016 for setting up of Integrated Cryogenic Engine Manufacturing Facility (ICMF) with an investment of Rs 208 crore, it added.

"The commissioning of all the critical equipment for the manufacturing and assembly requirement is completed," the statement said.

The pre-production activities which involve preparation of the process plans, drawings, quality plan etc. has also commenced, it added.

HAL will start realising the modules by March 2023, according to the statement.

HAL Aerospace Division manufactures liquid propellant tanks and launch vehicle structures of PSLV, GSLV MK-II, GSLV Mk-III and also stage integration for GSLV Mk-II.

The Aerospace Division entering into manufacture of cryogenic engines is a major step in technology up- gradation cum modernisation, the statement said.

Cryogenic Engines are the most widely used engines world over in the launch vehicles.

Due to the complex nature of the cryogenic engine, till date only few countries USA, France, Japan, China and Russia have mastered the cryogenic technology.

On 5 January, 2014 India successfully flew GSLV-D5 with a cryogenic engine (made by ISRO through private industries) and became the sixth country in developing cryogenic engines.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without any modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)