Goa-Based Company Bags Prestigious Order From ISRO For Its Manned Flight Project

With the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reportedly planning for eight programmes in the next decade, companies are confidently going ahead with the use of carbon-fibre composites. These, say those using them in their products – from windmill blades to railway bodies to rocket components – comfortably outsmart all other materials thanks to their high chemical resistance, tensile strength and stiffness as well as low thermal expansion. It is no wonder that Shekhar Sardessai, chairman & managing director of the Goa-based joint venture Kineco Kaman Composites, is over the moon with a new order from ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) for crew orbiter module adaptor assemblies (OMAs) for the country’s maiden first manned space flight, Gaganyaan. The contract for these was signed just after the successful supply of a composite equipment bay shroud to VSSC for the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) Mk-III as well as several other space and aerospace programmes. The OMA, a conical carbon fibre reinforced plastic structure integrated with metallic rings machined to tight tolerances, is a critical component of the GSLV, which acts as an adaptor between the crew escape module and the escape bay shroud.  “We will definitely meet the stringent quality parameters and delivery timelines,” says Sardessai. The company will supply the first three assemblies by the end of 2023. After that, the sky is no longer a limit!