 successfully demonstrated the landing of its Reusable Launch Vehicle RLV){kind=link}
Shillong, April 2: The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully demonstrated the landing of its Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), which is still under development at Chitradurga, Karnataka, on Sunday.
In the early hours, the test was carried out at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, Karnataka. The spacecraft is similar to NASA’s space shuttles, which served as the largest launch vehicle for the American space agency into Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
Early on Sunday morning, a Chinook helicopter from the Indian Air Force launched the spacecraft. It was carried by the heavy-lift helicopter to a height of 4.5 kilometres above the ground and launched there as an underslung weight. The RLV was released in midair in response to an instruction from the Mission Management Computer after it reached the test height.
As the spacecraft released independently, 10 parameters encompassing position, velocity, altitude, and body rates matched the release condition. According to ISRO, RLV used the Integrated Navigation, Guidance and Control system to undertake approach and landing manoeuvres before finishing an autonomous landing on the ATR air strip.
The autonomous landing was performed under conditions that were identical to those for a space re-entry ship’s landing including high speed, unmanned, accurate landing from the same return path – as though the vehicle had just left the planet. The achievement of landing parameters, such as ground relative velocity, landing gear sink rate, and accurate body rates, as may be felt by an orbital re-entry spacecraft on its return course, was announced by ISRO.
According to the Indian space agency, this is the first occasion ever that a winged body has been lifted by a helicopter to a height of 4.5 kilometres and then released to make an autonomous runway touchdown.
In order to offer affordable access to space, ISRO is attempting to create the necessary technologies for a fully reusable launch vehicle, or RLV.