Agnikul Cosmos has inaugurated two new facilities at its Assembly & Testing Facility in Chennai, strengthening its ability to test reusable rocket stages under flight-like conditions and manufacture critical launch vehicle components in-house. The new Stage Testing & Inspection Facility (STIF) and Pressurant Tank Realization, Over-wrapping and Outfitting Facility (PROOF) were inaugurated in the presence of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, Gaganyaan astronaut.
The facilities have been established as Agnikul prepares for Mission-02 and expands its infrastructure to support a higher launch cadence. The new capabilities cover stage-level testing, post-flight inspection and requalification, as well as in-house production of high-pressure composite overwrapped pressure vessels.
STIF has been designed and fabricated entirely in-house to test reusable rocket stages under conditions representative of flight operations. The facility can conduct full-stage tests with propulsion and avionics integrated, including clusters of Agnikul’s patented single-piece, semi-cryogenic, electric pump-fed 3D-printed engines.
The facility supports thrust levels ranging from 1 kN to 200 kN, LOX sub-cooling down to 73 K and full-duration burns of up to 150 seconds. It also provides facilities for inspecting and requalifying recovered rocket stages following flight. The infrastructure is intended to support a repeatable cycle covering vehicle build, testing, launch, recovery, inspection, requalification and subsequent flight, which is central to Agnikul’s plans for reusable launch vehicles.
PROOF brings the manufacturing of high-pressure composite overwrapped pressure vessels within Agnikul’s operations. The facility has a production capacity of more than 10 vessels a month and can manufacture vessels with capacities of up to 3,500 litres and pressure ratings of up to 350 bar.
By manufacturing these vessels in-house, Agnikul expects to have greater control over production processes, quality and turnaround times while reducing dependence on external suppliers. Together, STIF and PROOF expand the company’s vertically integrated capabilities spanning propulsion and avionics development, component manufacturing, stage testing and recovery operations.
“India’s space programme is entering an exciting phase, with capabilities being built across the country that will enable increasingly ambitious missions. It is encouraging to see Agnikul continue to expand its capabilities in advanced manufacturing and testing. The emergence of such capabilities across the industry will play an important role in building a deeper and more self-reliant space ecosystem for India,” said Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla.
Srinath Ravichandran, Co-founder and CEO, Agnikul Cosmos, said, “The vision of bringing reusability to launch requires us to think beyond a single flight and build the capability to test, recover, inspect and prepare a stage for its next flight. STIF gives us the ability to test complete stages for the duration of their mission and inspect and requalify recovered stages. This is an important capability as we work towards Mission-02. PROOF takes us another step towards end-to-end in-house quality control. Having Group Captain Shukla, who has flown to space, inaugurate these facilities is a dream come true for all of us at Agnikul.”
Moin SPM, Co-founder and COO, Agnikul Cosmos, said, “STIF and PROOF bring critical capabilities for our vehicle recovery and manufacturing operations in-house. The ability to manufacture high-pressure composite overwrapped vessels at production scale gives us greater control over the process, quality and turnaround time. This capability, along with the stage-level testing facility, will be important as we expand our manufacturing capacity and build towards a higher launch cadence.”
The new facilities add to Agnikul’s existing in-house manufacturing and testing infrastructure. The company designs and manufactures its single-piece, 3D-printed semi-cryogenic engines internally and also develops its avionics and other propulsion and vehicle systems.
Agnikul’s Mission-01, conducted on May 30, 2024, demonstrated a controlled ascent using its single-piece 3D-printed engine and in-house autopilot architecture. With the addition of STIF and PROOF, Agnikul is extending its manufacturing and testing capabilities from individual propulsion and vehicle components to complete-stage testing, recovery assessment and production of critical pressure vessels as it prepares for its next phase of launch operations.
