With the test-firing of the indigenous unmanned model space shuttle – the size of a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) – by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, 350 km from here, India has joined the race to develop reusable spacecraft to put satellites into the orbit after the US’ Nasa stopped its Space Shuttle programme in 2011.
Lifting off from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, the double delta-winged flight vehicle RLV Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) was hoisted into the atmosphere on the special rocket booster for a peak altitude of over 65 km and released for re-entry to the atmosphere before its splashdown in the Bay of Bengal.
The total flight duration of the 6.5-metre-long ‘aeroplane’-like structure from launch to landing lasted 770 seconds, ISRO said. From a 65-km altitude, RLV-TD began its descent followed by atmospheric re-entry at around Mach 5 – five times the speed of sound – with the vehicle’s Navigation, Guidance and Control system accurately steering it during this phase for safe descent, ISRO said in a statement.
After successfully surviving high temperatures of re-entry with the help of its Thermal Protection System (TPS), RLV-TD successfully glided down to the defined landing spot over Bay of Bengal, at a distance of about 450 km from Sriharikota, fulfilling its mission objectives, it said.
The RLV-TD is described as “a very preliminary step” in the development of a reusable rocket, whose final version is expected to take 10-15 years.
The aerospace vehicle with a 1.75 tonne weight was not recovered as it disintegrated on impact with water since it is not designed to float. The vehicle was successfully tracked during its flight from ground stations at Sriharikota and a shipborne terminal. The government has invested Rs 95 crore into the RLV-TD project.
The RLV is ultimately aimed at putting satellites into orbit around earth and then re-enter atmosphere with the ultimate goal of drastically slashing down the cost of launches by as much as 10 times. In this flight, critical technologies such as autonomous navigation, guidance and control, reusable thermal protection system and re-entry mission management have been successfully validated, ISRO said in a statement.
The reduced-scale space plane resembling a US space shuttle was experimented on a model almost six times smaller than the final version.
Hailing the successful mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Launch of India’s first indigenous space shuttle RLV-TD is the result of the industrious efforts of our scientists. Congrats to them.”
“The dynamism & dedication with which our scientists & @isro have worked over the years is exceptional and very inspiring,” the Prime Minister, now in Iran, said in a tweet.
This is the first time that ISRO has launched a winged flight vehicle. ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar had said earlier that it is essentially an attempt by India to bring down the cost of making infrastructure in space.
If reusable rockets become a reality, the cost of access to space may come down by 10 times, he had said.