en.Wedoany.com Reported - Indian private space company Agnikul Cosmos has announced the completion of the country's first cluster ignition test of four semi-cryogenic rocket engines. The company, founded by alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), stated that all four engines were manufactured using 3D printing processes as single-piece hardware and were designed in-house at the company's Rocket Factory 1 facility. Similar to the propulsion systems previously introduced by the company, each engine is powered by pumps driven by electric motors.
The complexity of this test lay not only in the ignition itself. The test required calibrating eight pumps and eight motors, while simultaneously tuning eight independent speed control algorithms to achieve synchronized coordination during startup, steady-state operation, and shutdown. Agnikul Cosmos co-founder and CEO Srinath Ravichandran stated in a LinkedIn post that this test involved calibrating eight pumps, eight motors, and tuning eight speed control algorithms to work in perfect synchronization, achieving unified startup, steady-state, and shutdown performance for the entire system. According to the company, this was the first such test in India using semi-cryogenic engines, and it received support from IIT Madras, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe).
This test brings Agnikul Cosmos one step closer to the launch cadence required for its commercial roadmap. The company stated that its manufacturing approach enables engines to be printed in a matter of days, compared to months required by traditional manufacturing processes, helping to match production output with customer demand rather than being constrained by production capacity. Furthermore, the adoption of an electric pump-fed architecture eliminates the traditional turbopump, supporting the company's reusability goals by reducing the number of components that need refurbishment between flights. Prior to this cluster ignition test, Agnikul Cosmos completed the full cycle from design to testing of its Agnite engine—a one-meter-long, single-piece Inconel semi-cryogenic engine—at its facility in Chennai in March this year. In December 2025, the company also conducted a dual-engine ignition test, where two pump-fed engines maintained uniform operation for 49 seconds, which was also claimed to be a first in India.
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