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Context

• The Indian Space Research Organisation has successfully tested the throttling of Vikas, its workhorse launch-vehicle engine.

Vikas Engine

• The Vikas is a family of liquid fuelled rocket engines conceptualized and designed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in the 1970s.
• The early production Vikas engines used some imported French components which were later replaced by domestically produced equivalents. 
• The Vikas engine powers the second stages of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), the liquid strapons of GSLV and the core liquid stage of LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark III) for space launch use.
• Vikas engine is used to power the second stage of PSLV, boosters and second stage of GSLV Mark I and II and also the core stage of GSLV Mark III. The propellant loading for Vikas engine in PSLV, GSLV Mark I and II is 40 tons, while in GSLV Mark III is 55 tons.

The recent Throttling Test

• The throttling test was done toward enabling booster-stage recovery in future launch vehicle configurations.
• The results of the first hot test of Throttleable Vikas Engine indicate stable combustion and subsystem performed in accordance with the prediction.

Read:

https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/nuclear-powered-rockets

https://www.iasgyan.in/blogs/the-basics-of-missiles

https://www.deccanherald.com/city/top-bengaluru-stories/isros-vikas-engine-passes-throttling-test-1189340.html

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