The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has yet another addition to itsalready long list of achievements. On Sunday morning tested a new rocket engine which could bring down launch costs by up to 10-fold. With the successful launch, India joined the league of only two nations which have the technology. Two scramjet engines took off from the rocket port located at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.  

Scramjet is an engine that takes atmospheric oxygen to burn engine fuel - a senior ISRO official said. The rocket, also called Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV), had lift-off weight of 3,000 kg and the new air-breathing engine was tested for a mere 5 seconds. Usually rockets carry both fuel and oxidiser for the combustion to happen. This new engine takes in oxygen from the atmosphere as its fuel. This reduces the overall weight of the rocket and increases efficiency.

The ISRO in a statement said: "With this flight, critical technologies such as ignition of air breathing engines at supersonic speed, holding the flame at supersonic speed, air intake mechanism and fuel injection systems have been successfully demonstrated." The scramjet engine designed by ISRO uses hydrogen as fuel and the oxygen from the atmospheric air as the oxidiser.