Chennai-based space start-up Agnikul Cosmos has successfully tested its 3D-printed booster engine, 'Agnite', marking a significant advancement in reducing production complexity and turnaround time for space missions.
The entire engine, Agnilet, is one piece of hardware from start to finish and has zero assembled parts, reports T E Narasimhan.
The engine is earmarked for the LVM3-M3 mission identified for launching the next 36 OneWeb India-1 satellites, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
The spacetech startup is expected to launch the first rocket which can hurl satellites of 250-700 kg into a lower Earth orbit by end-2021.
Weighing 6,100 kg, the communication satellite would be the heaviest payload to be placed into the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in LVM3 launch history from Indian soil.
For the first time in India, the facility enables 3D printing of aerospace and rocket components up to one metre in height.
ISRO stated that the disengagement of at least one contact -- in both the main and redundant paths -- of a connector led to the failure of NVS-02.
Indian Space Research Organisation scientists have carried out a new experiment on the indigenously developed C25 cryogenic stage of the LVM3-M5 rocket which successfully placed the Communication Satellite CMS-03 into the intended orbit on Sunday, said its Chairman V Narayanan.
The heaviest communication satellite to be launched from the Indian soil onboard a new generation, homegrown 'Bahubali' rocket was successfully placed into the intended orbit on Sunday, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
India's first indigenously designed and developed high-thrust cryogenic rocket engine generating a nominal thrust of 19 tonnes was successfully endurance hot-tested for 800 seconds.
The move follows a quiet visit by National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.
For the first time, there will be an Indian connection to a crewed Moon mission.
'Today, as I look at our satellite -- tested, finished and ready to ship -- represents 1,642 days of grit and belief.'
Iran is fighting a different war: Older, slower, and in some ways more dangerous. Iran doesn't need to shoot down an F/A-18. It only needs to make the Strait of Hormuz feel dangerous long enough for insurance markets, shipping companies, and oil futures traders to do the rest. Prem Panicker continues his must-read daily blog on the war in the Middle East.
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has recently approved procurement proposals worth Rs 79,000 crore across three services and it has cleared AoN (Acceptance of Necessity) of Rs 3.3 trillion in financial year 2026 (FY26).
Will rising tensions between US-Israel and Iran threaten crude oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz, putting India's fuel prices, imports, and economic stability at risk?
The fuel cost will come down if rockets are launched from Kulasekarapattinam as they will have a straight trajectory and need not have to avoid Sri Lanka, which is being done by rockets flown from Sriharikota.
India is set to take its first steps towards its own human space flight when the uncrewed Gaganyaan mission soars to the skies later this year. Private players in the space sector are also gearing up for launching satellites on home-built rockets.
'If you go by the capital expenditure, this is a good defence budget. But we will have to see if the government can keep defence spending at 2 per cent or higher in 2027-2028.'
'A solid motor, once ignited, burns until the propellant is exhausted. It cannot simply stop mid-burn,' said a retired senior ISRO official. 'That is what makes this failure puzzling.' Venkatachari Jagannathan reports on the latest PSLV failure.
The largest tranche came in July, in the wake of Operation Sindoor, with the DAC according acceptance of necessity -- or initial approval -- for 10 capital acquisition proposals amounting to approximately 1.05 trillion through indigenous sourcing.
From a surge in startups to crewed mission preparations, 2025 marks a transformative year as India eyes $44 billion space economy by 2033.
The satellite, weighing about 4,410 kg will be the heaviest to be launched from the Indian soil and into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), the space agency said. The satellite will travel onboard a LVM3-M5 rocket, dubbed as 'Bahubali' for its heavylift capability.
ISRO is set to launch its communication satellite CMS-03 from Sriharikota. The satellite, weighing 4,410 kg, will be the heaviest launched from Indian soil into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
The Elon Musk-headed SpaceX's newest Starship exploded ahead of a routine engine test in Texas, leading to a complete loss of the aircraft and damage to the immediate area surrounding the stand, the company has said.
F1 champion Max Verstappen revelled in McLaren's strategy horror show at the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday.
'Government officials use Gmail and ordinary phones without basic security consciousness.' 'Interoperability, especially in joint exercises with countries like the US, worries me.' 'It often means we open our systems to them, but they don't reciprocate.' 'They could have kill switches in their systems and might even be able to affect ours.'
Engineers from Space X said that the 400-foot-tall ship, launched from the company's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in Texas, lost altitude control after several engines stopped working 20 seconds before the end of the ascent burn.
In terms of success rate, the PSLV rocket has an enviable record of 57 successful missions out of 58 commercial ones.
'ISRO recommended to carry out in-situ repairs or replacement and conduct a low-temperature leak test to validate system performance and integrity, before proceeding with launch.'
The rocket flight was aborted in order to plug the liquid oxygen leak identified during post-static fire Falcon 9 rocket inspections.
: Build lasting wealth via disciplined, long-term mutual fund investing in India's compounding marathon, Shanaihi, Shanaihi, says Ramalingam Kalirajan
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others are expected to travel to the International Space Station on June 19, after SpaceX successfully resolved the liquid oxygen leak in its Falcon-9 rocket, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Saturday.
'The solution is to replace, clean up, retest and proceed.' 'There is nothing to worry about if corrected.'
ISRO said the upper stage of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle - C37 (PSLV-C37) re-entered the earth's atmosphere on October 6, 2024 and the impact point was the North Atlantic Ocean.
With these successful tests, ISRO has moved a step closer to India's first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan.
The mission was originally scheduled for lift-off on May 29 but was put off multiple times when engineers detected a liquid oxygen leak in the boosters of the Falcon-9 rocket and NASA also detected leaks in the ageing Russian module of the ISS.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has put off Sunday's launch of the Axiom-4 mission carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others to the International Space Station and a new date will be announced in the coming days.
Despite the failure, Musk emphasised that the mission yielded valuable data and outlined an accelerated launch schedule going forward.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla's Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station has been postponed to June 22, to allow National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to evaluate the operations on the orbital lab after the recent repairs in the Russian section, Axiom Space announced on Wednesday.
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