The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said it has successfully conducted an autonomous test landing mission of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Karnataka at Chitradurga on Sunday.
A statement issued by ISRO said, “India has achieved this. ISRO in association with DRDO successfully conducted the Autonomous Landing Mission for the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV LEX) at the Air Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, Karnataka on April 2, 2023 in the morning hours.”
According to the statement, the RLV took off at 7:10 a.m. by an Indian Air Force Chinook helicopter. RLV release was autonomous. Then, using an integrated navigation, guidance and control system, the RLV completed an autonomous landing on the ATR at 7:40 am. With this, ISRO has successfully achieved an autonomous landing of a space vehicle.
The statement said: “The autonomous landing was carried out under the exact conditions of a high-speed, unmanned and precision landing of a space re-entry vehicle from the same re-entry trajectory as if the vehicle had arrived from space. LEX used several indigenous systems. Localized navigation systems, instrumentation and sensor systems etc. have been developed by ISRO.”
“ISRO showcased the return of its RLV-TD winged vehicle on the HEX mission in May 2016. The re-entry of the hypersonic suborbital vehicle marked a major achievement in the development of reusable launch vehicles. LEX began with an integrated navigation test in 2019, followed by several engineering model tests and self-stage tests in subsequent years,” the statement said.
Along with ISRO, the Indian Air Force (IAF), Military Airworthiness and Certification Center (CEMILAC), Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) and Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) contributed to this test.
Dr. S. Unnikrishnan Nair, Director, VSSC, and Shyam Mohan N, Program Director, ATSP led the teams. Dr Jayakumar M, Project Director, RLV was the Mission Director and Muthupandian J, Associate Project Director, RLV was the Vehicle Director for the mission. Ramakrishna, Director, ISTRAC was present on the occasion. Chairman, ISRO/Secretary, DOS Somanath witnessed the test and congratulated the team. With LEX, the dream of India’s reusable launch vehicle comes a step closer to reality, ISRO officials said.
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