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According to ISRO chairman S. Somanath, the organisation conducted the first landing demonstration of its Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) on 28th Jan.
As long as the climate and weather are acceptable, Somanath, who was speaking to ThePrint on the sidelines of the 8th India International Science Festival in Bhopal, said the demonstration will go through as scheduled.
RLV = Reusable Launch Vehicle
An RLV is a launch vehicle that can be reused since it is made to return to the Earth largely undamaged. One of ISRO's most technically difficult projects is the Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), which aims to develop key technologies for a completely reusable launch vehicle to provide affordable access to space.
The RLV-TD arrangement combines the complexity of both launch vehicles and aircraft in a manner similar to that of an aircraft. The winged RLV-TD has been designed to serve as a flying test platform for assessing a variety of technologies, including powered cruise flight, autonomous landing, and hypersonic flight. Future scale-ups of this vehicle will make it the initial stage of India's reusable two-stage orbital launch vehicle.
The RLV-TD is made up of a body (fuselage or the main body of the aircraft), a nose cap, two delta wings, and two vertical tails. Additionally, it has Elevons and Rudder, two symmetrically positioned active control surfaces. The traditional solid booster (HS9), which was intended for low burn rate, pushed this technology demonstration for the creation of an RLV-TD and the selection of materials such as specific alloys, composites, and insulating materials, highly trained labour is required. For the construction of this vehicle, a variety of cutting-edge machinery and testing tools were used.
A two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) fully reusable vehicle is the goal of ISRO's Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) Program, a series of technology demonstration flights. A TSTO, or two-stage rocket, is a spacecraft that uses two different propulsion stages in succession to reach orbital velocity.
For its RLV-TD Program, ISRO conducted a landing demonstration for the first time.
According to Somanath, the ISRO has also scheduled the launch of a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) with a load capacity of 500 kg to low Earth orbit (500 km).
The SSLV launch, scheduled for February 10-15, comes six months after ISRO's first SSLV-D1 failed to enter a stable orbit due to a separation stage sensor malfunction.
Mr. Somanath recalled that mission's launch on August 7 of last year and expressed his lack of enthusiasm about ISRO's accomplishment in 2022.
"For me, it was not enough. My goals were much higher," he admitted to ThePrint. He added, SSLV failed to succeed and that he was quite disappointed because it was just barely missed. However, he said that they are making great progress towards the launch this year.
He continued by saying that ISRO also planned to do an abort test for its space project Gaganyaan last year but was unable to do so. This test would have examined the mechanism designed to aid crew escape from a spacecraft in an emergency.
The scientist noted that in addition to the RLVs and SSLV, the space agency has plans to launch a mission to study the Sun this year.
