Correct Answer : Chennai
Homegrown space startup, "Agnikul Cosmos", the country’s first private factory dedicated to building rocket engines in Chennai on Wednesday(13th July 2022), inaugurated by N Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons, and S Somanath, chairman of ISRO and secretary, department of space.
The company said that the facility will use additive manufacturing technology to build 3D printed rocket engines, and will be used to produce engines for its own in-house rockets.
Srinath Ravichandran, chief executive of Agnikul Cosmos, said that the facility presently has the capacity to build two rocket engines from scratch, every week. This will allow the factory to produce eight engines every month, and build the number of engines required to launch Agnibaan – its two-stage launch vehicle, expected to launch by the end of the year.
“Since companies and organisations looking to launch satellites no longer have access to Russian facilities, and launching aboard heavy rockets could be expensive, small orbital launch vehicles can help India win a large chunk of satellite launch orders in the near future," Ravichandran said.
The company said that it already has partners who are preparing small-sized satellites to be launched on the Agnibaan rockets, and the factory will address this demand.
Agnibaan is an ultra-light launch vehicle that is lighter than the
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s upcoming small, light commercial rocket – the
Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). While the
SSLV can carry payloads of around
300kg,
Agnibaan will be able to
carry payloads of up to
100kg to
low Earth orbits (LEOs) of up to
700km above Earth..
Source : Mint
