India successfully launches its own 'space shuttle'
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Monday successfully took a first step in developing a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV).
The organisation successfully tested RLV-TD (technology demonstrator). It is a small, aircraft-like, winged structure.
A spokesperson from Isro said that RLV-TD HEX-01 mission was accomplished successfully. The lift-off happened at 7 am.
The RLV-TD is a rocket-aircraft combination measuring about 17 m, whose first stage is a solid propellant booster rocket and the second stage is a 6.5-m long aircraft-like winged structure sitting atop the rocket.
The RLV-TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that has been considered as a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable vehicle.
A winged Reusable Launch Vehicle technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) has been configured to act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies, namely, hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion.
These technologies will be developed in phases through a series of experimental flights. The first in the series is the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX), followed by the landing experiment (LEX), return flight experiment (REX) and scramjet propulsion experiment (SPEX). Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator Hypersonic Experiment (RLV-TD HEX1) wherein the hypersonic aero-thermo dynamic characterization of winged re-entry body along with autonomous mission management to land at a specified location and characterization of hot structures are planned to be demonstrated.
Earlier Dr K Sivan, director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, where the RLV-TD was designed, assembled and where it underwent basic tests, said that the objective is to achieve hypersonic speeds to test the characterisation of the winged body’s re-entry, its control and guidance systems, autonomous mission management to land at a specific location at sea and testing of hot structures that make up the structure of the RLV.
The test is termed as Hypersonic Experiment 1 (HEX-1).
The first test launch HEX1 is a very preliminary step and Isro has to go a long way before it could be called a re-usable launch system. But these are very essential steps Isro has taken.
A reusable launch vehicle is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on-demand space access, says the space organisation.
He was quoted saying a conventional launch vehicle (LV) spends the lowest time of its flight in the atmosphere, whereas the RLV system spends all the time in the atmosphere.
The technology of an RLV is much more complex basically arising from the design of the control and guidance systems, he pointed out.
The objective of the RLV programme of ISRO is to enable the vehicle traverse a very wide range of flight regimes from Mach 0 to Mach 25 based on air-breathing propulsion for achieving two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) launch capability.
ANI
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WATCH: India launches its first indigenous space shuttle, the RLV-TD from Sriharikota(Andhra Pradesh)
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Isro takes the first step in developing reusable launch vehicle - Business Standard
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