Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: Vikram Sarabhai Space Center

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is pushing forward on reusable launch vehicle technology.

According to ISRO, the winged Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration Program (RLV-TD) is a series of technology demonstration missions for realizing a two stage to orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable vehicle.

RLV-TD is viewed as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies: hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion.

Suborbital splashdown

According to a March 29^th news item in The Hindu, the premier flight of the program is slated for as early as mid-May. Riding atop a solid-propelled booster rocket, the craft will fly to over 40 miles (70 kilometers) altitude then released to plow through the atmosphere to a splashdown in the Bay of Bengal.

Credit: Vikram Sarabhai Space Center

The first in the series of experimental flights, explains ISRO, is the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX) followed by the landing experiment (LEX), return flight experiment (REX) and scramjet propulsion experiment (SPEX).

K. Sivan, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, led the RLV-TD development program and spearheaded its design, qualification, aerodynamic characterization and hardware development.

Credit: Vikram Sarabhai Space Center

Vikram Sarabhai Space Center is the major centre of ISRO, where the design and development activities of satellite launch vehicles and sounding rockets are carried out and made ready for launch operations.