RLV LEX

sree nivas April 4, 2023 GS3, Science & technology Leave a comment 175 Views

Context: The Indian Space Research Organisation and its partners successfully demonstrated a precise landing experiment for a Reusable Launch Vehicle at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, Karnataka.

Key details:

The Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) test was the second of five tests that are a part of ISRO’s efforts to develop RLVs.
These are space planes/shuttles, which can travel to low earth orbits to deliver payloads and return to earth for use again.

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).
ISRO’s RLV-TD looks like an aircraft.

Origins of the RLV project

One of the first trials of an RLV was announced by ISRO as far back as 2010, but was put off due to technical reasons.
Another was hinted at in 2015 but was again grounded over technical issues.
Finally, the first trial of the RLV-TD was conducted on May 23, 2016.

Advantages

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 percent of the present cost.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

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