CHITRADURGA: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday landed its Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) in an autonomous mode, demonstrating its capability of using such spacecraft to deliver low-earth orbit satellites in space and return to the ground for reuse in a subsequent mission.
This is expected to cut the costs of satellite launching missions by 80%.
The successful experiment, called Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV-LEX), was carried out at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Challakere in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district.
At 7.10 am, a Chinook Helicopter of the Indian Air Force carried a winged RLV (a space plane) and flew to a height of 4.5 km to a predetermined spot. It released the RLV from that height, which then carried out a precise autonomous landing on the runway at DRDO’s ATR in Challakere.
The technique used to launch the vehicle was “a first in the world” where a winged body was carried to an altitude of 4.5 km by helicopter and released for carrying out an autonomous landing on a runway.
“The autonomous landing was carried out under the exact conditions of Space Re-entry vehicle’s landing,” the space agency tweeted.