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India’s Reusable Launch Vehicle Demonstrator Successfully Flight Tested

237 pointsby sriharisalmost 9 years ago

6 comments

vmarsyalmost 9 years ago
Very impressive, but It&#x27;s not a fully reusable rocket (in the SpaceX sense), but it looks more like a reusable ship, like the columbia space shuttle.<p>&gt; May 23, 2016 ISRO successfully flight tested India’s first winged body aerospace vehicle operating in hypersonic flight regime.<p>&gt; 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 07:00hr IST. After a successful flight of 91.1second, 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<p>So the solid rocket booster, HS9, wasn&#x27;t reusable.<p>What looks more interesting to me is:<p>&gt; The vehicle’s Navigation, Guidance and Control system accurately steered the vehicle during this phase for safe descent<p>Was it unmanned? On Autopilot?<p>Pictures and details: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.isro.gov.in&#x2F;launchers&#x2F;rlv-td" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.isro.gov.in&#x2F;launchers&#x2F;rlv-td</a><p>EDIT: according to Wikipedia, the ultimate goal seems to be a fully reusable setup:<p>&gt; The demonstration trials will pave the way for a two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable launch vehicle<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hypersonic_Flight_Experiment" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hypersonic_Flight_Experiment</a>
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swatkatalmost 9 years ago
This test is a part of ISRO&#x27;s next gen &quot;two stage to orbit&quot; (TSTO) launch vehicle.<p>First stage of TSTO will have delta wings and scramjet engine for landing. Second stage will have parachutes for landing[0].<p>The winged body that was tested two months ago will be the first stage of TSTO. In this experiment, ISRO tested aerodynamics and flight control systems of this delta-winged body at hypersonic speeds.<p>In the next experiment (scheduled on July), ISRO will be testing the scramjet engine.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;p2CUxE1.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;p2CUxE1.png</a>
creshalalmost 9 years ago
No, they demonstrated the capability of developing one at some point in the future. The test article isn&#x27;t even capable of reaching orbit, or returning from orbit, or landing yet.<p>This is the easy step – comparable to the American X-15, X-23, ASSET, and SpaceShipOne projects, the Russian BOR-1 to -6 or ESA&#x27;s IXV demonstrator –, turning this into a Space Shuttle &#x2F; Buran &#x2F; X-37b style actual space plane will be a long, expensive undertaking.<p>And, as the Space Shuttle demonstrated, &quot;recoverable&quot; and &quot;reusable&quot; are two different beasts: The Shuttle&#x27;s engines returned to Earth, but were so burned out from each launch that they required a refurbishment 80% as expensive as a whole new engine, and only managed an average of 5 launches even with that – planned were 55 flights without major refurbishments.<p>It&#x27;s also different from reusable <i>boosters</i> as developed by SpaceX, in case anyone is wondering: This is the upper stage portion that goes into orbit, and needs a booster to get into (or close to) orbit first. Those can be more expensive than the actual plane, depending on the design:<p>• The X-37b launches atop an Atlas rocket, and its expensive stages are completely lost.<p>• ESA&#x27;s Hermes was supposed to launch on the similarly fully expendable Ariane 5.<p>For regular satellite launches, you don&#x27;t save much money with these designs – since you don&#x27;t need to return the orbital part anyway, you can just launch the Atlas&#x2F;Ariane <i>without</i> the expensive plane on top and still come out cheaper. It&#x27;s mainly relevant for manned programmes, which is why the Hermes was cancelled (since ESA&#x27;s manned programme never got the necessary funding) and Ariane 5 just launched without, and why the X-37b is restricted to classified launches that probably involve returning <i>things</i> back to Earth (which is where space planes really shine!).<p>And even for manned programs, space planes don&#x27;t necessarily lead to cost savings:<p>• The Space Shuttle put all expensive parts – engines, avionics, and so on – into the orbiter, and only the big external tank burned up. The solid boosters were also recovered, but since they were just steel tubes, they didn&#x27;t require much refurbishment (unlike the main engines). If the engines and heat shield hadn&#x27;t been such massive failures, it might have worked out to be reasonably cheap in the long run. Alas. The way it turned out, it was a ridiculous money sink.<p>• The Russians, as always, decided to out-crazy everyone and put engines on the Buran orbiter, even more and even bigger engines on the external tank, oh and let&#x27;s use four boosters instead of two. And make those liquid-fueled, so that each side booster is as complex as a smaller rocket on its own (and can be used as such). <i>To everyone&#x27;s surprise</i>, this bankrupted the Buran program. There were plans to put foldable wings on the side boosters and orbiter-style delta wings and heat shields on the external tanks and turn everything into UAVs that automatically land on runways after detaching, but the Soviet Union preferred dissolution over funding any of that.
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murukesh_salmost 9 years ago
Why is it trending now? It happened almost two months back, if i remember..
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iamcreasyalmost 9 years ago
It looks very similar to European Mini-Space Shuttle program.<p>Source : <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.space.com&#x2F;28520-europe-launches-mini-shuttle-ixv.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.space.com&#x2F;28520-europe-launches-mini-shuttle-ixv....</a>
ittekimasualmost 9 years ago
Has anyone noticed how everything of value out of India is only in English (the other lang link is blank) ? This sort of thing would be anathema in China; what with all the &#x27;millenium of humiliation&#x27; and things. Odd, considering the general indignance showed towards @pmarca (from @a16z) some months back.<p>Edit: @a16z -&gt; @pmarca
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