ISRO successfully conducts autonomous test landing of Reusable Launch Vehicle

Category : Science and Tech Published on: April 04 2023

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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully carried out the landing experiment of the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) programme at the Aeronautical Test Range in Challakere, Chitradurga.
The actual vehicle will be 1.6 times larger than the prototype.
It was for the first time in the world that a winged body was carried to an altitude of 4.5km by helicopter and released for carrying out an autonomous landing on a runway.
RLV is essentially a space plane with a low lift-to-drag ratio requiring an approach at high glide angles that necessitates a landing at high velocities of 350kmph.
The RLV-TD will be used to develop technologies like hypersonic flight (HEX), autonomous landing (LEX), return flight experiment (REX), powered cruise flight, and Scramjet Propulsion Experiment (SPEX).
One of the first trials of an RLV was announced by ISRO as far back as 2010, but was put off due to technical reasons. Another was hinted at in 2015 but was again grounded over technical issues.
Finally, the first trial of the RLV-TD was conducted on May 23, 2016.
The Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) test was the second of five tests that are a part of ISRO’s efforts to develop RLVs, or space planes/shuttles, which can travel to low earth orbits to deliver payloads and return to earth for use again.