India on Monday successfully launched the first technology demonstrator of indigenously made Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), capable of launching satellites into orbit around earth and then re-enter the atmosphere, from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
A booster rocket with the RLV-TD lifted up at 7 a.m. from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, and the launch vehicle separated from it at an altitude of 50 km.
The RLV-TD or winged space plane then climed to another 20 km and began its descent. It re-entered to earth's atmosphere at an hypersonic speed of more than 5 Mach and touched down the Bay of Bengal between Chennai and the Andaman archipelago.
Known as hypersonic flight experiment, it was about 10 minutes mission from liftoff to splashdown.
An ISRO spokesman said the mission was accomplished successfully. "Everything went according to the projectory, he said adding that the winged space plane will not be recovered from the sea.
This successful experiment of the ISRO is only a very preliminary step towards developing reusable launch vehicles.
Several flights of RLV-TD will have to be undertaken before it really becomes a reusable launch system to put satellites into orbit.
M.C. Dathan, former director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said: "The mission was successful. And the RLV-TD is healthy and floating on the sea."
RLV, being dubbed as India’s own space shuttle, is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on—demand space access, according to ISRO scientists.
RLV-TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that have been considered as a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable vehicle, ISRO said.
It has been configured to act as a flying testbed to evaluate various technologies, including hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air breathing propulsion, it said.
A booster rocket with the RLV-TD lifted up at 7 a.m. from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, and the launch vehicle separated from it at an altitude of 50 km.
The RLV-TD or winged space plane then climed to another 20 km and began its descent. It re-entered to earth's atmosphere at an hypersonic speed of more than 5 Mach and touched down the Bay of Bengal between Chennai and the Andaman archipelago.
Known as hypersonic flight experiment, it was about 10 minutes mission from liftoff to splashdown.
An ISRO spokesman said the mission was accomplished successfully. "Everything went according to the projectory, he said adding that the winged space plane will not be recovered from the sea.
This successful experiment of the ISRO is only a very preliminary step towards developing reusable launch vehicles.
Several flights of RLV-TD will have to be undertaken before it really becomes a reusable launch system to put satellites into orbit.
M.C. Dathan, former director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said: "The mission was successful. And the RLV-TD is healthy and floating on the sea."
RLV, being dubbed as India’s own space shuttle, is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on—demand space access, according to ISRO scientists.
RLV-TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that have been considered as a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable vehicle, ISRO said.
It has been configured to act as a flying testbed to evaluate various technologies, including hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air breathing propulsion, it said.