SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk has congratulated India in his signature one-word tweet style for successfully conducting the third "hot test" of Vikas engine. The Vikas engine will play a critical role in India's ambitious Gaganyaan mission. Musk's response came after the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) tweeted about the successful engine hot test on July 14.
ISRO has successfully conducted the hot test of the liquid propellant Vikas Engine for the core L110 liquid stage of the human-rated GSLV MkIII vehicle, as part of engine qualification requirements for the Gaganyaan Programme, said the space Organisation.
"Congratulations!" said Musk, with India's national flag emoticon. ISRO had said the engine was fired for 240 seconds at the engine test facility of ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu.
The performance of the engine met the test objectives and the engine parameters were closely matching with the predictions during the entire duration of the test, added the space organisation.
Elon Musk's tweet on ISRO's successful engine test comes in the backdrop of a shared vision both ISRO and his company SpaceX have for low-cost space missions. In the past too, Musk had appreciated ISRO's efforts towards achieving success on big space missions despite the constrained budget.
In 2017, when ISRO launched 104 satellites on a single rocket into space, Musk had said: "Yeah, awesome achievement by ISRO. Very impressive!"
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Musk has been pioneering commercial space travel through Space X. Musk's company aims to take humans to space at the lowest possible cost. They have also championed the 'reusable rocket technology to turn people's space dream into reality.
ISRO has also congratulated SpaceX on key occasions. On June 1 last year, ISRO congratulated NASA and SpaceX for the historic first launch of the manned mission after 2011. "Great job," it said.
Four Indian astronaut candidates have already undergone generic space flight training in Russia as part of the Gaganyaan Programme. ISRO's heavy-lift launcher GSLV Mk III has been identified for the mission.
The formal announcement of the Gaganyaan programme was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address on August 15, 2018. The initial target was to launch human spaceflight before the 75th anniversary of India's independence on August 15, 2022.
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