Space-tech startup Agnikul to flight test 3D-printed engine by year-end
Agnikul, a Chennai-based startup specialising in building satellite launch vehicles, plans to launch its first flight — with the world’s first 3D-printed engine — before the end of this year.
The mission would be a technology demonstrator that will mirror Agnikul’s orbital launch – the first commercial launch planned in 2024 — but at a reduced scale.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Product ManagementVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Professional Certificate in Product ManagementVisitIIM KozhikodeIIMK Advanced Data Science For ManagersVisit“We are looking to launch by the end of the year. One test is pending which will be done in our campus itself in IIT-Madras. Once the last set of reviews with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) is done, we are good to go as the launch vehicle is already at the launch pad,” chief executive Srinath Ravichandran told ET. “This isn’t a sounding rocket and is a complex machine, so we want to get it right in the first attempt.”
If successful, the startup incubated on the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras campus, will become India’s second private company to make a small satellite launch vehicle. The first one was Skyroot Aersospace, which launched the Vikram S in November 2022.
There is a key difference between Agnikul’s rocket named Agnibaan and the Vikram S, said Ravichandran. While Vikram S was a sounding rocket launched from guide rails, Agnibaan would lift off vertically and follow a predetermined trajectory while performing a precisely orchestrated set of manoeuvres during flight.
Sounding rockets are one- or two-stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions
