"India achieved it": ISRO successfully conducts autonomous test landing of Reusable Launch Vehicle

ISRO RLV Test: Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Sunday successfully conducted the autonomous test landing mission of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). The mission was conducted in at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Karnataka’s Chitradurga in the early hours on April 2.

“India achieved it. ISRO joined by DRDO successfully conducted the Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, Karnataka in the early hours on April 2, 2023,” ISRO said.

According to ANI, the RLV took off at 7:10 am by a Chinook Helicopter of the Indian Air Force. The release of RLV was autonomous. Then using the Integrated Navigation, Guidance & control system, the RLV completed an autonomous landing on the ATR at 7:40 AM. With that, ISRO successfully achieved the autonomous landing of a space vehicle.

“The autonomous landing was carried out under the exact conditions of a Space Re-entry vehicle’s landing high speed, unmanned, precise landing from the same return path as if the vehicle arrives from space. LEX utilized several indigenous systems. Localized Navigation systems, instrumentation, and sensor systems, etc. were developed by ISRO,” said ANI quoting an official statement.

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“ISRO had demonstrated the re-entry of its winged vehicle RLV-TD in the HEX mission in May 2016. The re-entry of a hypersonic sub-orbital vehicle marked a major accomplishment in developing Reusable Launch Vehicles. The LEX began with an Integrated Navigation test in 2019 and followed multiple Engineering Model Trials and Captive Phase tests in subsequent years”, reads the statement.
 
The Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) and Indian Air Force (IAF), also contributed to this test along with ISRO.

The teams were guided by Dr S Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of VSSC, and Shyam Mohan N, Programme Director of ATSP. The mission was directed by Dr Jayakumar M, project director at RLV, while the Vehicle Director for the mission was Muthupandian J, associate project director at RLV. 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 an Indian Reusable Launch Vehicle arrives one step closer to reality, said the ISRO officials.

(With ANI Inputs)