The Indian space programme is people-centric and application-centric. That’s our USP, that whatever we do, it should finally find a place for the common man. And you have had about eight launches in seven months?
Yes, since July 2013, we have had eight successful missions — PSLVs, a few satellites, the Mars Orbiter Mission and the latest GSLV-D5 with the Indian cryogenic engine and stage.
A cryogenic rocket engine is a rocket engine that uses a cryogenic fuel or oxidizer, that is, its fuel or oxidizer (or both) are gases liquefied and stored at very low temperatures. Notably, these engines were one of the main factors of NASA's ultimate success in reaching the Moon by the Saturn V rocket.
The major components of a cryogenic rocket engine are the combustion chamber (thrust chamber), pyrotechnic initiator, fuel injector, fuel cryopumps, oxidizer cryopumps, gas turbine, cryo valves, regulators, the fuel tanks, and rocket engine nozzle. In terms of feeding propellants to the combustion chamber, cryogenic rocket engines (or, generally, all liquid-propellant engines) are either pressure-fed or pump-fed, and pump-fed engines work in either a gas-generator cycle, a staged-combustion cycle, or an expander cycle.
Not all liquid-propellant engines are cryogenic. Engines that run in hypergolic propellants do not need cryogenic cooling. These are storable propellants. They may remain in the fuel tanks without maintenance for years until the engine is needed. Station-keeping rockets in satellites, space probes, space stations, and vehicles use small hypergolic engines for maneuvering. Hypergollic propellants are also used in boosters and main engines in launch. For example, the Titan ICBM engines ran on Hypergollic propellants. This way missiles could be ready for launch in just a few minutes after having spent years in underground launch silos with only minimal maintenance. This was a big improvement over the first ICBM system, the Atlas, which had to be filled with fuel before flight. This added at least 15 minutes to the launch time.
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