Sri City industries support ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3

Tirupati: Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing on the moon is not just a breakthrough and a matter of pride for India’s scientific community - it has also been a blessing to Indian industries. While ISRO led the way in managing the project from conception to completion, it equally deserves recognition for fostering a network of vendors, encompassing both public and private sector participants.

This outstanding accomplishment of ISRO brings to light several Indian firms that have provided systems to the launch vehicle, spacecraft, or ground-based infrastructure. It is a matter of pride to Sri City that three of its units, VRV (Chart Group), Rotolok and Val-met Engineering have been involved in ISRO programmes, including the Chandrayaan-3 mission.

VRV, a Chart Group (USA) of company supplied a state-of-the-art large storage tank of LH2 with a Liquid nitrogen (LIN) shield, to Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in a collaborative effort with ISRO, under ‘Make in India’ initiative. The storage capacity of the tank is 120 kilo litres. The LH2 fuel for the cryogenic stage of LVM-3 and GSLV rockets is fed from the bulk storage area, wherein the VRV tank was installed. Rotolok India, a subsidiary of the Rotolok Holdings Ltd, UK manufactures a comprehensive range of powder and bulk material handling products. Some of the Rotolok’s products are used at the ISRO’s solid rocket propellant manufacturing plant at Sriharikota. The propellant produced here powers the huge solid booster of LVM-3 and the solid propellant stages of PSLVs, GSLVs, and SSLVs as well. Val-met Engineering supplies super alloys Nickel, Titanium, Cobalt, Aluminium, etc., in different forms, as raw materials for fabricating hardware of launch vehicles and satellites of ISRO, including the LVM-3 and Chandrayaan -3 spacecraft. Siddartha Logistics provides crucial logistic services of handling precious space crafts and their payloads to ISRO’s satellite/payload customers and their services were rated as ‘the best’.

Appreciating the commitment of these industrial units Sri City MD Dr Ravindra Sannareddy said, “We feel very happy and honoured as these units have supported the national space programme by supplying their products. Sri City industrial units look forward to taking part in such Atma Nirbhar programmes”.

“In line with the Central government’s dream campaign ‘Make in India’ the industrial units of Sri City have been contributing their might for several important national and international projects, substituting imports and significantly multiplying exports,” Dr Ravindra added. He further stated that while Hunter Douglas and Siddhartha Logistics have been associated with Dassault’s Rafale aircraft project, BFG’s FRP products are used across different sectors, including Vande Bharat trains of Indian Railways and several metro projects as well.

Sri City, which has more than 205 enterprises across various sectors, will be an excellent choice to build an aerospace centre due to its advantageous position and close proximity to the ISRO’s Spaceport. Sri City also has a well-established aerospace industry ecosystem. Numerous light engineering industries and renowned producers of liquified gases, and storage tanks are already located in Sri City.