After its successful test on the Agnibaan rocket, Chennai-based space start-up Agnikul Cosmos is targeting launches of satellites early next year.
Agnikul co-founder and CEO Srinath Ravichandran said: "With our ability to do semi-cryogenic engines and rockets additively manufactured on 3D-printers, we offer a very fast turnaround time to our customers, enabling launch vehicle customization to a customer's specific need in a matter of months.".
“Nine to twelve months I would say. Probably by the end of this financial year or the early part of the next financial year is what we are targeting,” Ravichandran explained.
The first test flight of Agnibaan SOrTeD (suborbital technology demonstrator) on May 30, which lasted 66 seconds, followed four previous unsuccessful attempts. "It was a huge relief," said Ravichandran. “It was a big sense of relief. I think we got a lot of learning in differentiating between building a vehicle and launching a vehicle,” His idea to employ 3D printing technology for constructing engines and rockets led to the founding of Agnikul Cosmos, a space sector start-up incubated at the IIT Madras Research Park in 2017.
The company was co-founded by Moin SPM, an operations expert, and Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy, a professor at IIT Madras and Head of the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development.
Women engineers played a pivotal role in the successful test flight: Saraniya Periaswamy, the Vehicle Director for Agnibaan SOrTeD, and Umamaheswari K., the Project Director of the first mission.
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