Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: ISRO on March 22 said it has achieved a major milestone in the area of reusable launch vehicle technology through the RLV LEX-02 landing experiment. This is the second of the series conducted at Aeronautical Test Range, Chitradurga, Karnataka, at 7.10 am.
After the RLV-LEX-01 mission was accomplished last year, RLV-LEX-02 demonstrated the autonomous landing capability of the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) from off-nominal initial conditions at release from a helicopter, the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said in a statement.
“The RLV was made to undertake more difficult manoeuvres with dispersions, correct both cross-range and downrange and land on the runway in a fully autonomous mode,” it said.
The winged vehicle, called Pushpak, was lifted by an Indian Air Force Chinook helicopter and was released from 4.5 km altitude. After release at a distance of 4 km from the runway, Pushpak autonomously approached the runway along with cross-range corrections. It landed precisely on the runway and came to a halt using its brake parachute, landing gear brakes and nose wheel steering system, ISRO said.
