'India achieved. it': ISRO successfully conducts ‘Reusable Launch Vehicle' test
By Srikanto Mandal
3 April, 2023
ISRO and its partners conducted a successful Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) test on April 2, 2023.
RLVs are space shuttles that can travel to low earth orbits, deliver payloads, and return to earth for reuse.
The RLV LEX test was the second of five tests in ISRO's efforts to develop RLVs.
The RLV performed approach and landing maneuvers using an Integrated Navigation, Guidance, and Control system and completed an autonomous landing on the Aeronautical Test Range airstrip.
The RLV-TD will be used to develop technologies like hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, and Scramjet Propulsion Experiments.
The first experimental flight of RLV-TD was conducted successfully by ISRO on May 23, 2016.
RLV-TD looks like an aircraft and consists of a fuselage, a nose cap, double delta wings, and twin vertical tails.
By using RLVs, the cost of a launch can be reduced by nearly 80 percent of the present cost.
Former ISRO chairman K Sivan stated that 80 to 87 percent of the cost of a space launch vehicle goes into its structure, while the propellant costs are minimal in comparison.