India successfully launches reusable launch vehicle RLV-TD

• India has successfully launched the first technology demonstrator of indigenously made Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), capable of launching satellites into orbit around earth and then re-enter the atmosphere.
• This is 6.5 meter long Re-usable Launch Vehicle – Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) weighs about 1.7 tons.
• It is built over five years by a team of 600 scientists and cost around Rs 95 crore.
• This is being seen as the unanimous solution towards achieving low cost, reliable and on-demand space access.
• The project is also being called a hyper-sonic experiment (HEX) as it will also test the ability of the vehicle to withstand re-entry at speeds higher than that of sound.
• ISRO will conduct more tests namely the Landing Experiment (LEX), the Return Flight Experiment (REX), and the Scramjet Propulsion Experiment (SPEX). The final RLV will be six times bigger at 40 meters and will be capable of carrying 10 tonnes of payload. ISRO may also look at man-rating it for future human space flights by Indian astronauts.
• The RLV program was launched to bring down the cost of space launches and began way back in 2006.
• In the experimental mission an HS9 solid rocket booster lifted the RLV-TD from its launch pad to a height of 56 km where the RLV TD separated from the rocket and climbed to a height of 65 km before automatically steering itself back for a landing in the Bay of Bengal some 450 km away from the Sriharikota space station.
• In this flight critical technologies such as autonomous navigation, guidance and control, reusable thermal protection system and re-entry mission management have been successfully validate
• The flight test was supported by the Indian coast guard and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) for mid sea wind measurements and shipborne telemetry.

Complex technology

• 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. Also, while an aircraft experiences limited flight regime of say Mach 0 to Mach 2 or so, the RLV experiences a much wider range of flight regimes.
• Hence the technology of an RLV is much more complex basically arising from the design of the control and guidance systems.
• The ultimate 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 25based on air-breathing propulsion for achieving two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO)launch capability.
• Importance of Reusable Vehicle
• The RLV program was launched to bring down the cost of space launches and began way back in 2006. Ground tests of wind tunnel model were conducted and demonstrated the model’s ability to withstand speeds of seven times the speed of sound.

Other Reusable launch vehicle

• Space X: It is Elon Musk’s privately funded programme focuses on developing a set of new technologies for an orbital launch system that may be reused.
• Buran: Buran was the first space plane to be produced as part of the Soviet Buran programme. It is the only Soviet reusable spacecraft to be launched
• Space Shuttle: Space Shuttle was a reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system by the NASA. It was used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.
• Blue Origin: Blue Origin is an American privately-funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos

By: Vishal