India to test reusable launch vehicle |
The Indian Space Research Organization is all set for the first runway landing experiment (RLV-LEX) of the Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), with its chairman S. Somanath, indicating that the weather is being monitored. The RLV wing body will be transported by helicopter to an altitude of three to five kilometers before being released at a distance of about four to five kilometers in front of the runway with a horizontal velocity. The RLV will glide after being released, navigate to the runway, and land independently with landing gear at the defense airfield close to Chitradurga. According to reports, new systems like landing gear, parachutes, hook beam assembly, radar altimeter, and pseudo lite have been developed and certified. On 23 May 2016, ISRO successfully completed its first RLV-TD HEX-01 (Hypersonic Flight Experiment-01) mission from SDSC SHAR, demonstrating the essential technologies for the design and flight testing of re-entry vehicles. However, it was a suborbital flight designed to land at the sea. One of the critical technologies to be demonstrated in the RLV-LEX mission is approach and autonomous landing on a runway.
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