ISRO all set to test flight its indigenously developed scramjet engine today

CHENNAI, Aug 27: In its quest to build its first Resuable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and to bring down the launch cost significantly, the Indian Space Research  Organisation (ISRO) is all set to conduct the air-breathing propulsion experiment  using its RH-560 rocket fitted with a supersonic combustion ramjet (Scramjet)  engine from the spaceport of Sriharikota, tomorrow.
ISRO sources said the launch of aircraft-shaped RH-560 sounding rocket to  test the scramjet (air breathing) engine, to be used during the atmospheric  phase of the rocket’s flight, would take place at 0600 hrs tomorrow.
The scramjet engine will help in bringing down the launch cost by reducing  he amount of oxidiser to be carried along with the fuel.
This test was to have been done on July 28, but the search by the Indian  Air Force and the Navy for the IAF’s transport aircraft AN-32, which went  missing over the Bay of Bengal on July 22, has delayed it by a month.
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, has  developed the engines to be used in the RH-560 rocket.
The scramjet engine was part of the ISRO’S plans to build India’s first  reusable launch vehicle (RLV) by 2030.
During the test, the engine would be fitted on a two-stage RH-560 sounding  rocket and launched to an altitude of about 70 km using conventional engines.
There, the first stage will break off and fall into the Bay of Bengal.         The second stage will coast horizontally for a bit, travelling at over  six-times the speed of sound. This is when the scramjet engine will fire  for five seconds.
RH-560 signifies two things–RH means its a Rohini-class sounding rocket  and 560 is its diameter in millimetres. Its modified second stage, to which  the scramjet engine was being affixed, was called the Advanced Technology  Vehicle (ATV).
According to ISRO, it is a scaled-down prototype of the RLV that will  eventually fly on missions about 14 years from now.   (PTI)
To be more economical than ISRO’s existing launch vehicles, the RLV  should be able to carry payloads weighing 10,000-20,000 kg to the low earth orbit.
Tomorrow’s testing was the second in the series of experiments, the  Indian Space Agency would be conducting en route to developing the first  RLV.
On May 23, ISRO successfully flight tested India’s first winged body  aerospace vehicle operating in hypersonic flight regime.
In this experimental mission, the HS9 solid rocket booster carrying  RLV-TD lifted off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre,  Sriharikota at 0700 hrs.
After a successful flight of 91.1 secs, HS9 burn out occurred, following  which both HS9 and RLV-TD mounted on its top coasted to a height of about  56 km. At that height, RLV-TD separated from HS9 booster and further  ascended to a height of about 65km.
From that peak altitude of 65 km, RLV-TD began its descent followed by  atmospheric re-entry at around Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound).
The vehicle’s Navigation, Guidance and Control system accurately steered  the vehicle during this phase for safe descent.
After successfully surviving  high temperatures of re-entry with the help of its Thermal Protection System  (TPS), RLV-TD successfully glided down to the defined landing spot over Bay  of Bengal, at a distance of about 450 km from Sriharikota, thereby fulfilling  its mission objectives.
The vehicle was successfully tracked during its flight from ground stations  at Sriharikota and a shipborne terminal.
The total flight duration from launch to landing of this mission of the delta  winged RLV-TD, lasted for about 770 seconds.
In this flight, critical technologies such as autonomous navigation, guidance  and control, reusable thermal protection system and re-entry mission  management have been successfully validated. (UNI)

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