Sriharikota: The Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO) successfully
test launched its maiden winged reusable launch vehicle (RLV) early Monday from
Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
“We have
successfully accomplished the RLV-TD mission. The lift-off was at 7.00 a.m.
from the first launch pad here,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
director Devi Prasad Karnik was quoted as saying to IANS after the mini-shuttle
returned to the Earth.
The 6.5 metre
long ‘aeroplane’-like structure weighing 1.75 tons was launched from the Satish
Dhawan Space Centre, Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km northeast of Chennai off the
Bay of Bengal coast. The test launch is considered a significant step in India’s
space endeavour. The project, which began more than a decade ago at the Vikram
Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, costs about Rs 95 crore.
This is the
first time ISRO has launched a winged flight vehicle, which glided back onto a
virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal, some 500 kilometres from the coast.
Known as
hypersonic flight experiment, it was about 10 minutes mission from liftoff to
splashdown. It has been configured to act as a flying testbed to evaluate
various technologies, including hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered
cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion.
Scientists describe the RLV-TD mission as “a very
preliminary step” in the development of a reusable rocket, whose final version
is expected to take in ten to 15 years. ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar explained
that the experimental RLV it is essentially an attempt by India to bring down
the cost of making infrastructure for space. “The RLV is a mechanism for us to
bring down the cost of launch. We intend to go through a series of technology
demonstration exercises, the first one of which we call HEX-01, that is a hypersonic
experiment. It is called a winged body,” Kumar said.
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