Raman Engine

Raman Engine is a bipropellant rocket engine manufactured by Skyroot Aerospace that will be used in its Vikram family of rockets.^[1] It is named after Indian Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman.

Raman

Country of origin	India
Status	Under Development
Liquid-fuel engine
Propellant	N2O4 / UDMH
Performance
Thrust	850 N (190 lbf)

Description

It uses UDMH and NTO hypergolic propellants.^[2] Its injector plate is completely 3D printed. This engine will be used in a cluster of 4 in the fourth stage of the Vikram 1 rocket, which can produce a thrust of 3.4 kN each producing 850 N of thrust, which is lower than many other rocket engines, but is required for precise orbit adjustments.^[3][4]

Development and Testing

• On 12 August 2020, Skyroot Aerospace successfully tested the engine for the first time.^[5]
• Skyroot Aerospace tested the Raman-2 engine, designed for vacuum conditions, by firing it for 200 seconds on a ground test stand. The team used water injection to mitigate flow separation in the vacuum-optimized nozzle, allowing accurate testing at sea level. This test provided critical data for the Vikram-1 rocket's fourth stage, advancing India's private space efforts. ^[6]