Agnikul Cosmos successfully test fires engine to power Agnibaan rocket
This capability allows for higher accuracy and rapid response—critical for managing complex flight trajectories and mission requirements. During the test, the engine was throttled across a wide range of thrust levels, demonstrating the flexibility and reliability of the technology. Unlike conventional rocket engines that rely on gas generators or turbopumps, Agnikul's semi-cryogenic engine uses an electric motor to power the pumps that circulate propellants—a combination of liquid oxygen (cryogenic oxidizer) and refined kerosene (non-cryogenic fuel).This approach is not only more efficient but also allows for easier integration of advanced control systems.Agnikul's signature single-piece engine design remains central to this new system. Many of the engine's pump subsystems were 3D-printed and assembled at the company's AS9100D-certified Rocket Factory-1, located at the IIT Madras Research Park in Chennai.The motor drives and associated control software were also designed and developed entirely in-house.advertisementThe successful test is a key step toward firing a cluster of these engines together, a crucial requirement for powering the Agnibaan rocket.Agnibaan, which can be configured to carry payloads ranging from 30 kg to 300 kg, is designed to serve the growing demand for affordable and customisable satellite launches.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
19 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
PMPML plans 60-year PPP lease to develop depot lands
The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) board of directors has forwarded a proposal to the state government's urban development department (UDD) to lease depot lands for development on public-private partnership (PPP) for 60 years instead of the earlier 30 years. Facing a mounting financial deficit despite the introduction of electric and CNG-based air-conditioned buses, the public transport utility is exploring ways to renovate its over 30 depots to enhance facilities and generate additional revenue. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO) Facing a mounting financial deficit despite the introduction of electric and CNG-based air-conditioned buses, the public transport utility is exploring ways to renovate its over 30 depots to enhance facilities and generate additional revenue. 'Private agency appointed to prepare a feasibility report has identified 14-15 sites that could be developed under the PPP model. Three depot plots under the jurisdiction of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) have also been included in the plan,' said Pankaj Deore, chairman and managing director (CMD), PMPML, on Friday. While the proposed plan includes modern charging infrastructure, adequate parking facilities, workshops, hotels, office complexes, and hospitals at the lands, 60-year lease is expected to create steady income streams, said PMPML officials.
Mint
19 minutes ago
- Mint
OpenAI's GPT-5 Met With Mixed Reviews, Confusion in First Day
(Bloomberg) -- For months, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman has been hyping up the capabilities of GPT-5, setting up the launch as a seminal moment for the company. But in the first 24 hours after its release, the new model was met with mixed reviews. In its announcement Thursday, OpenAI said GPT-5 was better at coding and reasoning through complex problems, and touted it as advanced enough to turn chatbot ChatGPT into a Ph.D.-level expert. Some with early access praised the model, with caveats. 'It's my new favorite model,' developer Simon Willison wrote in a blog post, calling it 'competent' and 'occasionally impressive.' He added: 'It's not a dramatic departure from what we've had before.' On various social media platforms, however, ChatGPT users expressed frustration that GPT-5 continued to make up information and trip over simple math and spelling questions. Noah Giansiracusa, an associate professor of mathematics at Bentley University, said he felt the launch was 'underwhelming.' While there were 'some improvements,' he said, 'they were much more marginal than I would've hoped.' At least some of the reaction may come down to confusion over what's happening under the hood. Unlike OpenAI's prior software, GPT-5 automatically switches between models of varying levels of sophistication depending on the query. This approach can help maximize the company's computing resources, but it also means users may not always be engaging with the most powerful version of OpenAI's technology. Asked to identify how many times the letter 'b' shows up in 'blueberry,' for example, GPT-5 initially said 'three' in one test. When told to 'think harder,' however, GPT-5 appeared to engage its more advanced reasoning model and came up with the correct answer. On Friday, Altman responded to some of the feedback and said there was an issue with the system. 'GPT-5 will seem smarter starting today,' he said. 'Yesterday, the autoswitcher broke and was out of commission for a chunk of the day, and the result was GPT-5 seemed way dumber.' The stakes are high for the rollout. OpenAI is vying to keep ahead of growing AI competition from rivals in the US and China. The company is also fighting to convince businesses and individual users to pay up for its premium services to help offset the enormous amount it's spending on talent, chips and data centers to support AI development. The San Francisco-based company kicked off the generative AI boom nearly three years ago with the release of ChatGPT, which was originally powered by an earlier model called GPT-3.5. Since then, the company has released a series of increasingly sophisticated systems, including multiple options that mimic the process of human reasoning. As AI systems advance, it's become harder to say definitively how various services stack up. As of midday Friday, GPT-5 had risen to the top of various categories on LMArena, a popular leaderboard for AI models based on user rankings. But a different benchmark, ARC-AGI-2, puts GPT-5 behind the latest version of Grok from Elon Musk's xAI. In the absence of more definitive assessments, the model wars sometimes come down to vibes. And with nearly 700 million people now using ChatGPT each week, some are bound to disagree over how the model feels. It also takes longer than a day to gauge the value of a new AI system in someone's personal and professional life. Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who frequently experiments with AI models, marveled at GPT-5's ability to do research, come up with clever written responses and make programming simple, even for a novice. 'GPT-5 just does stuff, often extraordinary stuff, sometimes weird stuff, sometimes very AI stuff, on its own,' he wrote in a blog post. 'And that is what makes it so interesting.' On Reddit, however, the reactions were very different. During an 'Ask Me Anything' session Friday on the platform, Altman fielded pushback from users who were frustrated not to have more say and visibility into which model responds to their queries. Altman said OpenAI would take some steps to address these complaints, including making it 'more transparent.' At one point, Altman responded to a Reddit user's question by noting that OpenAI thinks the 'writing quality' in one version of GPT-5 is better than GPT-4.5. Then he asked: 'Do you find it to be worse?' One user after another were quick to respond: yes. More stories like this are available on
NDTV
2 hours ago
- NDTV
Probe Agency Opposes Sanjay Bhandari's Plea Against 'Fugitive Offender' Tag In Delhi High Court
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday opposed in the Delhi High Court a plea of UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari against a trial court's order declaring him a "fugitive economic offender". The probe agency said when the trial court's order was passed in July, the court was aware about an assessment order showing Rs 655 crore of property was surreptitiously acquired. His counsel and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, however, argued before Justice Neena Bansal Krishna that the prosecution was initiated without completion of assessment proceedings and if the assessment was incomplete, where was the reason to believe that the tax evasion was over Rs 100 crore. "They had no evidence to show that there was a Rs 100 crore tax liability. There has to be reason to believe that the tax liability is more than Rs 100 crore. Now if the assessment is not completed, where is the reason to believe that it is more than Rs 100 crore. This application (to declare him a fugitive) did not lie. It was premature," he submitted. Seeking a stay and quashing of the trial court proceedings, Sibal said Bhandari would be remediless the moment they declare him a fugitive. "They (ED) don't follow the law, they want to declare me a fugitive offender and take over Rs 400-500 crores of my property and don't allow me to file any claim. This is the state of law in this country," he said. Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, said, "When the order was passed the trial court was aware that there was an assessment order showing that Rs 655 crore of property has been surreptitiously acquired and on the date of the order, there was more than Rs 100 crore tax liability and Rs 196 crore of tax evasion is there." The court posted the matter for August 20. The trial court on July 5 declared Bhandari a "fugitive economic offender" on a plea by the ED, an order that allows the agency to confiscate all the assets worth crores of rupees of Bhandari, whose chances to come to India have been virtually nullified after a UK court recently ruled against his extradition. Bhandari's legal team, while opposing the ED's move to get him declared a fugitive offender, claimed its "client's stay could not be called illegal in the UK as he has a legal right to reside in the UK and the government of India is bound by the judgment of the UK court... Bhandari is legally living there, and declaring him a 'fugitive' in that scenario is legally wrong". The trial court said the "extradition attempt may have failed, but it will not make the accused an angel or immune from prosecution for the violation of Indian laws". Bhandari (63) fled to London in 2016, soon after the I-T department raided him in Delhi. The ED filed its first chargesheet against Bhandari in 2020. The agency is probing Bhandari's links with Robert Vadra, the businessman husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. PTI SKV SKV AMK AMK
