BENGALURU: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has added another feather to its cap by successfully demonstrating the autonomous landing capability of ‘Pushpak’, the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), as part of its RLV-LEX 2 mission.
The second experiment in the series was conducted at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Chitradurga, Karnataka, at 7.10 am on Friday. This was Pushpak’s third flight after the RLV-LEX-01 mission was accomplished last year. “The RLV was made to undertake more difficult manoeuvres with dispersions, correct both cross-range and downrange and land on the runway in a fully autonomous mode,” said ISRO in a statement.
Pushpak was lifted by an Indian Air Force Chinook helicopter and was released from a 4.5-km altitude. After release at a distance of 4 km from the runway, Pushpak autonomously approached the runway along with cross-range corrections. It landed precisely on the runway and came to a halt using its brake parachute, landing gear brakes and nose wheel steering system.
This experiment has successfully simulated the approach and high-speed landing conditions of RLV returning from space. Another success in the space frontier for ISRO was that all flight systems used in RLV-LEX-01 were reused in the second mission after clearances.