Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology

Why in news?

• Recently, ISRO and its partners successfully demonstrated a precise landing experiment for a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, Karnataka.
• An Indian Air Forces (IAF) Chinook helicopter was used to drop the RLV-TD from a 4.5 km altitude and ISRO executed the landing experiment of the RLV-TD as planned.

About Reusable Launch Vehicle of ISRO:

• According to ISRO, the series of experiments with the winged Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) are part of efforts at “developing essential technologies for a fully reusable launch vehicle to enable low-cost access to space”.
• In the future, this vehicle will be scaled up to become the first stage of India’s reusable two-stage orbital (TSTO) launch vehicle.
• With the costs acting as a major deterrent to space exploration, a reusable launch vehicle is considered a low-cost, reliable, and on-demand mode of accessing space.
• By using RLVs the cost of a launch can be reduced by nearly 80% of the present cost.

Application:

• The RLV-TD will be used to develop technologies like hypersonic flight (HEX), autonomous landing (LEX), return flight experiment (REX), powered cruise flight, and Scramjet Propulsion Experiment (SPEX).

Other Agencies Using RLV or Partial RLV:

• Reusable space vehicles have been in existence for a long time with NASA space shuttles carrying out dozens of human space flight missions.
• SpaceX has been demonstrating partially reusable launch systems with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets since 2017.
• SpaceX is also working on a fully reusable launch vehicle system called Starship.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements:

1. Fully reusable orbital systems have yet to be built and made operational

2. Fully reusable launch vehicles will cut down space exploration cost significantly

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer