Scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has achieved a major breakthrough with the analysis of the test flight of the Reusable launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RlV-TD) held on May 23 this year proving that all parameters performed as per the flight plan, according to Shyam Mohan, project director, RlV.
“We analysed the results of the first flight of the RlV-TD which took place at Satish Dhavan Space Centre, Sriharikotta. The vehicle performed as per the script prepared by us. All parameters worked according to the guidance and commands issued from our control room,” Shyam Mohan told The Pioneer.
Though it was decided by the ISRO management to have the second “test flight” after constructing a 3 km long runway at SDSC for the soft landing of the RlV, the test results made the scientists and engineers to prepone the flight. “We may use an existing runway in one of the airports in the country. The RlV could land in a 2.5 km long runway,” said Shyam Mohan.
The success of the RlV-TD is seen as a game changer for the ISRO, according to Shyam Mohan, a M Tech in mechanical engineering from IIT Madras and a specialist in aviation vehicle development. “We will get about 25 spin-off technologies from the success of the RlV. These technologies will benefit the light Combat Aircraft (lCA) and missiles to be developed by India. The avionics and computer guided system we developed for the RlV has vast applications in a number of strategic sectors,” said Shyam Mohan. He prefers to address the RlV as a winged rocket which could be used any number of times.
The PSlV and GSlV, the conventional launch vehicles used by ISRO to deploy spacecraft to their predetermined orbits cost `150 crore and `200 crore respectively. “But these vehicles could be used only for the particular mission and they get burnt after the spacecraft is deployed into the orbit. Now we need not assemble launch vehicles for each mission,” Dr R Purushothaman Nair, lead scientist, ISRO, told The Pioneer.
Shyam Mohan said the second flight would happen in one year’s time. He said though the May 23 flight was launched with a HS-9 booster rocket, the RlV is capable of flying by itself. “Next time, we will see the RlV taking off from the launch pad like the vertical take-off of a commercial aircraft,” he said. The RlV-TD which flew on May 23 was the miniscule version. “All we need to do is to scale up the vehicle to suit the payload,” he said.
The RlV is the vehicle which will take Indian astronauts to space and also lead the country’s inter planetary missions as well as space tourism, said Shyam Mohan.
The analysis of the flight results of the RlV-TD explained by Shyam Mohan and Dr Nair sounded like a thriller. “Everything, starting from the take-off, the burning out of the booster rocket in 92 seconds, the surge by the RlV which flew at a speed of Mach5 (five times the speed of sound), its deceleration to the speed of a civil aircraft approaching the airport and the landing at a spot 420 km east of the Bay of Bengal were as per the flight plan prepared by us,” said the 52-year-old Shyam Mohan.