At the time many Space firms of the United States have expressed their opposition to low cost Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launch vehicles used for putting American satellites into orbits, ISRO is gearing up to flight test its new generation Reusable launch Vehicle (RlV), that can launch satellites into orbit around Earth and then re-enter the atmosphere. According to ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar ISRO would launch the Technology Demonstrator reusable launch vehicle by the end of May.
He said “We will flight test in next month end Reusable launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration Program, which can re-enter the atmosphere.” The vehicle is currently on its way to Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota after having completed various tests, including the final acoustics test at the National Aerospace laboratories, he added.
Addressing the annual Air Chief Marshal lM Khatre lecture, organised by HAl, Air Force Association and the Aeronautical Society of India, in Bengaluru he said it has been configured to act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies, including hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion. “The vehicle will be taken to a height of over 70 km and released for its re-entry into the atmosphere,” he added.
According to Chairman ISRO this programme was approved in January 2012 and the launch was then scheduled to happen between July and August 2015. If ISRO achieves this fete this mark a new beginning and would place heavier satellites into orbit. Kumar also said that 34 satellites are in operation and many more are in the pipeline. The country’s space programme has flown 132 missions so far and launched 57 satellites belonging to 21 countries. Moreover, he added that the Director General of Civil Aviation had mandated Indian and international carriers to fit the space-based navigation system GAGAN onboard their aircraft by 2020-21. GAGAN is a Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) implemented jointly with the Airport Authority of India.
The main objectives of GAGAN are to provide satellite based navigation services with accuracy and integrity required for civil aviation applications and to provide better air-traffic Management over Indian airspace. The system will be inter-operable with other international SBAS systems and provide seamless navigation across regional boundaries. The GAGAN Signal-In-Space is available through GSAT-8 and GSAT-10.
The space agency will develop the RlV technologies through hypersonic flight experiment, landing experiment, return flight experiment and scramjet propulsion experiment.
lVM 3 has been conceived and designed to make ISRO fully self-reliant in launching heavier communication satellites of INSAT-4 class, which weigh 4,500-5,000 kg. The vehicle will also enhance India’s capability to be a competitive player in the multi-million dollar commercial launch market.