ISRO to Conduct First Runway Landing Experiment of Reusable Launch Vehicle,

ISRO says that one of the critical technologies to be demonstrated in the RLV-LEX mission is approach and autonomous landing on a runway.

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 9 November 2022 10:28 IST

ISRO to Conduct First Runway Landing Experiment of Reusable Launch Vehicle,

Photo Credit: Reuters

The RLV-TD test will take place at the aeronautical test range in Karnataka's Chitradurga distric

Highlights

ISRO waiting for weather conditions to become benign for RLV-TD test
RLV wing body to be carried with a helicopter at 3 km altitude
ISRO's mission objective is to achieve autonomous landing on a runway

The Indian Space Research Organisation appears set for the first runway landing experiment (RLV-LEX) of Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) from aeronautical test range in Karnataka's Chitradurga district, with its Chairman S Somanath indicating that weather is being monitored.

"We are looking at the climate. Climate is still not good. So, we are waiting for the wind and other systems to become benign. We will do that," Somanath, also Secretary in the Department of Space, told PTI here.

According to ISRO officials, the RLV wing body will be carried using a helicopter to an altitude of three to five km and released at a distance of about four to five km ahead of the runway with a horizontal velocity. After the release, the RLV will glide, navigate towards the runway and land autonomously with a landing gear in the defence airfield near Chitradurga.

India's First Private Rocket Could Be Launched Between November 12 and 16

Sources in the national space agency headquartered here earlier said new systems like landing gear, parachute, hook beam assembly, radar altimeter and pseudolite have been developed and qualified.

ISRO accomplished its maiden RLV-TD HEX-01 (Hypersonic Flight Experiment-01) mission on May 23, 2016 from SDSC SHAR and successfully demonstrated the critical technologies for design and flight testing of re-entry vehicles. However, it was a suborbital flight and designed to land on sea.

One of the critical technologies to be demonstrated in the RLV-LEX mission is approach and autonomous landing on a runway, according to ISRO.

ISRO Operational Activities Set to Be Moved to NSIL, to Focus on R&D

In order to acquire end-to-end reusable launch vehicle (RLV) technology capability, this milestone (RLV-LEX) has to be achieved before the RLV ORE (Orbital Re-Entry Experiment) mission, ISRO officials say.

ISRO to Explore Dark Side of the Moon With Japan, to Send Probe to Mars

In ORE, a wing body called Orbital Re-entry Vehicle (ORV) will be taken to an orbit by an ascent vehicle derived from the existing GSLV and PSLV stages and stay in orbit for a stipulated period, re-enter and land in a runway autonomously with a landing gear.

Are the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro the best in their segment? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.