Skip to main content

Agnikul opens India's first rocket engine factory in Chennai

Space tech startup Agnikul Cosmos today inaugurated India's first-ever facility to manufacture 3D-printed rocket engines in Chennai.

Named Rocket Factory 1, it was unveiled by Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran and Isro chairman S Somanath in the presence of Pawan Goenka, the chairman of IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre). The 10,000-square-foot facility is located at IIT-Madras Research Park. It will have a 400mm x 400mm x 400mm metal 3D-printer from  EOS that will enable end-to-end manufacturing of a rocket engine under one roof.


The manufacturing facility has a capacity to make two rocket engines per week and thereby one launch vehicle every month, Agnikul co-founder Srinath Ravichandran told TOI.

"This s a milestone for us as we go from R&D phase into core manufacturing with the opening of this facility, and begin productionizing the launch vehicle engine making. We have a lot of inbound interest [for launches] from global quarters going up to 2024," Ravichandran said. 

 Agnikul is making Agnibaan, a customizable, 2-stage launch vehicle, capable of taking up to 100 kg payload to orbits around 700 km high (low Earth orbits) and enables plug-and-play configuration.
Agnibaan comprises of a single-piece 3D printed engine Agnilet that is fully designed and manufactured in India and was successfully test-fired in early 2021. Agnikul has raised a total funding of Rs 105 crore from Mayfield India, pi Ventures, Speciale Invest and other angels such as Anand Mahindra and Naval Ravikant since 2019. It is currently in discussion with investors to close its next funding round soon, Ravichandran added.


"At full scale, the facility will have around 30-35 people working on various processes and machinery, and we have already staffed the factory with over 90% staff," he added.

Agnikul was founded in 2017 by Srinath Ravichandran, Moin SPM and SR Chakravarthy (professor of IIT-Madras). The startup is making Agnibaan, a customizable, 2-stage launch vehicle, capable of taking up to 100 kg payload to orbits around 700 km high (low Earth orbits) and enables plug-and-play configuration.

In December 2020, Agnikul had signed an agreement with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) under the IN-SPACE initiative to have access to the space agency's expertise and its facilities to build rocket engines.

Agnibaan Engine

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THIS WEEK @ ROCKETRY - JANUARY 03-09, 2022 | WEEKEND ROCKETRY AND SPACE NEWS

  1.             China’s Mars orbiter snaps amazing selfies above Red Planet China's Tianwen 1 spacecraft at Mars pulled a big New Year's surprise with stunning new images captured by a small camera that flew free of the orbiter to snap epic selfies above the Red Planet. The new images published by the China National Space Administration show Tianwen 1 above Mars' north pole, with its solar arrays and antennas on display, as well as a partial closeup of the orbiter and a view of the Red Planet's northern ice cap. The Mars shots were taken by a small camera device released by the orbiter which then took images and sent them to Tianwen 1 via WiFi. 2.             Big hunk of failed Russian rocket crashes to Earth as space junk The Persei upper stage of a Russian Angara A5 heavy-lift rocket crashed back to Earth in an uncontrolled fashion today (Jan. 5), hitting the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 4:08 p.m. EST (2108 GMT).  "Persei reentry confirmed:
Post a Comment
Read more

India's First Private Rocket is gearing up for its Maiden flight

India’s first privately developed rocket — Vikram-S is undergoing final launch preparations at ISRO launchpad in Sriharikota and is expected to be launched in a suborbital mission later this week. The mission is named ‘Prarambh’ — meaning ‘the beginning’. The rocket is developed by Skyroot Aerospace, which has the technical launch clearance from InSpace and is looking at a launch window between November 12 and 16. “A launch window between November 12 and 16 has been notified by authorities, the final date being confirmed based on weather conditions. With this maiden mission, we’re set to become the first private space company in India to launch a rocket into space heralding a new era for the space sector which was recently opened up to facilitate private sector participation,” the Hyderabad-headquartered company said. Skyroot, incidentally, was the first Indian startup to sign an MoU with Isro in this regard. “We could build and get Vikram-S mission-ready in such a short t
Post a Comment
Read more