Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has designed and built an indigenous fourth stage rocket fuel tank for the Indian space agency, helping it to save foreign exchange.
“We have delivered the fuel tank (propellant) to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for use in its polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV). The indigenisation effort has resulted in saving of Rs.1.2 crore in foreign exchange,” HAL chairman R.K. Tyagi said in a statement here Thursday.
A propellant tank is a pressurised vessel where liquid fuels are stored for firing a rocket into the space orbit. It is made of composite materials such as aluminium alloy, steel and carbon fibre.
“The fourth stage fuel tank has been built to carry 1.6 tonne of liquid propellant mono-methyl hydrazine as fuel and mixed oxides of nitrogen as oxidizer during the flight,” Tyagi said.
The aerospace major built the tank and its components while the space agency’s liquid propulsion centre at Mahendragiri in southern Tamil Nadu did the welding work.
The indigenisation of the fuel tank has been achieved by the coordinated efforts of HAL, ISRO and other state-run Bharat Heavy Plate and Vessels (BHPV) and Midhani, which are based at Vishakapatnam and Hyderabad.