Chairman of ISRO S. Somanath inaugurated state-of-the-art Propellant Tank Production and CNC Machining facilities at HAL’s Aerospace Division on Wednesday in Bengaluru.

The newly established facilities will provide a major boost to ISRO’s ability to meet its growing production needs, particularly for the Launch Vehicle Mark-3, India’s heaviest and most powerful rocket.

Currently, the existing capacity allows for only two LVM3 launches per year, whereas ISRO’s requirements stand at six launches annually. The facilities will address this gap, enabling HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) to manufacture enough critical components to support the production of six LVM3 rockets per year.

“HAL has enormous capacities and this potential should be explored in the larger interest of both the organizations. HAL will play a larger role in ISRO’s future missions hence should focus on emerging technologies, designing challenges and take up end-to-end tasks to ease pressure on ISRO” said S. Somanath, Chairman of ISRO.

During the program, in a symbolic gesture, the first Gaganyaan Service Module and LVM3 1/2 U Isogrid Version Hardware were also handed over to ISRO.

The Propellant Tank Production Facility will specialize in the manufacturing of high-performance fuel and oxidizer tanks, critical components for the LVM3 launch vehicle of size 4m in diameter and up to 15m in length. The CNC Machining Facility houses advanced Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines for handling high-precision fabrication of 4.5m class Rings and Propellant Tank Domes of LVM3.

“The ongoing collaboration with ISRO will accelerate human spaceflight missions and development of Next-Generation Launch Vehicles (NGLV). There are significant opportunities to work with ISRO and HAL is committed to invest further to unlock the full potential in space programs. The day is not far off when Space becomes an important vertical of HAL” said C B Ananthakrishnan, CMD (Addl. Charge), HAL.