The facility has two parts—the Agni launchpad and the Agni mission control center, which are four kilometers apart. According to Agni, the launchpad was designed to accommodate and support liquid stage-controlled launches. The Chennai-based startup plans to launch its Anibal rocket from this launchpad. Anibal is a two-stage launch vehicle that is capable of taking payloads of up to 100 kilograms to a low-earth orbit around 700 kilometers from the surface of the Earth. The Anibal rocket will be powered by the company’s 3D-printed Agni let engines. The Agni let rocket is a “semi-cryogenic” engine that uses a mixture of liquid kerosene and super cold liquid oxygen to propel itself. Agni test-fired the Agni let engine at ISRO’s facilities earlier this year.
In an interaction with indianexpress.com, Agni cofounder and CEO Srikanth Ravichandran said that the company is targeting to launch its Anibal rocket by the end of this year. The engine is very complex, functions at very high temperatures. So if we can 3D print an engine successfully, that makes us very confident about manufacturing simpler, static parts for the rest of the launch vehicle, said Ravichandaran at the time. But for an actual rocket launch, it is not just enough to validate the engines. The rocket’s other systems, including avionics packages and guidance and navigation systems, also need to be tested and validated. During its debut launch, the Anibal rocket will be carrying payloads that are designed to test its systems.
When you use older manufacturing techniques, there is a lot more complex hardware and manpower involved. With 3D printing, you can make hardware nearly as fast as you can make software. This is why we were able to make hundreds of iterations of the design so that we could finally reach a stage where we can 3D print an entire engine in one shot,"said Ravichandran over a video interaction The Agni let rocket engine is designed to be used in Anibal—a small satellite launch vehicle that can carry payloads of up to 300 kilograms to a low-Earth orbit—which the company is currently developing. The Agni let rocket engine is a “semi-cryogenic” engine. It uses a mixture of liquid kerosene at room temperature and super cold liquid oxygen to propel itself.
However, Agni sees the successful test-firing of the Agni let engine as a validation for using the technology for space-based applications. “The engine is very complex and it functions at very high temperatures. So if we can 3D print an engine successfully, that makes us very confident about manufacturing simpler, static parts for the rest of the launch vehicle,” he added.
But for an actual space launch, it is not just the engine that needs validation. Other systems, including avionics packages and guidance and navigation systems, also need to be tested and validated. Agni is working on validating the entire launch vehicle and is hoping to have a test launch by the end of the year. During the test launch, the Agni rocket will be carrying payloads that are designed to test its systems.
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