Agnikul Cosmos Opens New Testing Units in Chennai

Key facts

• Spacetech startup Agnikul Cosmos inaugurated two new units at its Assembly & Testing Facility in Chennai.
• The new units are the Stage Testing & Inspection Facility (STIF) and the Pressurant Tank Realization, Over-wrapping and Outfitting Facility (PROOF).
• Astronaut and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla inaugurated the facilities.
• STIF is a fully in-house facility for testing reusable rocket stages under flight-like operating conditions.
• STIF also supports post-flight inspection and requalification of recovered stages.
• PROOF enables in-house manufacturing of pressure vessels, which hold gases or liquids at a pressure significantly different from the outside environment.
• The new facility can produce more than 10 vessels a month, including vessels of up to 3,500 litres and 350 bar.
• Srinath Ravichandran, Co-founder and CEO of Agnikul Cosmos, said STIF enables testing of complete stages for the duration of their mission and requalification of recovered stages, while PROOF advances end-to-end in-house quality control.