ISRO Chairman inaugurates HAL facilities to support India's LVM3 Rocket Program

The newly established facilities will significantly enhance ISRO's capacity to meet its increasing production demands, particularly for the Launch Vehicle Mark-3, the heaviest and most powerful rocket in India, the public sector undertaking (PSU) said in an exchange filing.

The current capacity only allows for two LVM3 launches annually, but ISRO requires six launches yearly. "The facilities will bridge this gap by enabling HAL to manufacture enough critical components to support the production of six LVM3 rockets per year," HAL said.

Somanath appreciated HAL's efforts and said that the aerospace and defence company "will play a larger role in ISRO's future missions".

CB Ananthakrishnan, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of HAL, said that the ongoing cooperation with ISRO will accelerate human spaceflight missions and developing Next-Generation Launch Vehicles (NGL-V).

"The day is not far off when Space becomes an important vertical of HAL", he added.

"The Propellant Tank Production Facility will specialise in the manufacturing of high-performance fuel and oxidiser tanks, critical components for the L VM3 launch vehicle of size 4m in diameter and up to 15m in length. The CNC Machining Facility houses advanced Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines for handling high-precision fabrication of 4.5m class Rings and Propellant Tank Domes ofLVM3," the public company said.

Meanwhile, shares of HAL closed 0.2% higher at ₹4,344 on the NSE.