Why in News?

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently conducted the flight acceptance hot test of the CE-20 cryogenic engine that will power the cryogenic upper stage of the launch vehicle for the Chandrayaan-3 mission.

Highlights

• The hot test was carried out for a planned duration at the High Altitude Test Facility.
• All the propulsion parameters during the test were found satisfactory and closely matched with predictions.
• The cryogenic engine will be further integrated with the propellant tanks, stage structures and associated fluid lines to realise the fully integrated flight cryogenic stage.
• The test was successfully conducted at the ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu.
• Chandrayaan-3 is India’s third moon mission and is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole.
• The mission Is scheduled to be launched later in 2023 by Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
• The subsequent failure of the Vikram lander led to the pursuit of another mission to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2024.
• The Mission will have three major modules- the Propulsion module, Lander module and Rover.
• The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit.
• The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility