In a span of 15 months, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has completed all three autonomous landing tests of its spaceplane ‘Pushpak’ at the Aeronautical Test Range, Chitradurga, Karnataka. With the third and most complicated landing test accomplished at 7.10 am Sunday (June 23), ISRO will now have to work towards launching a larger version of this spaceplane to space on a modified rocket, testing the plane in earth orbit, and demonstrating its capability to re-enter the atmosphere, return to earth safely for a runway landing.
Re-usable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) or ‘Pushpak’ is the name given to this advanced aerospace vehicle, which has both civilian and strategic uses.
It should be highlighted that only the US and China are known to operate autonomous spacecraft. India will join the US and China on this list in the coming years as ISRO advances its “Pushpak” project. India plans to improve this vehicle in the future and utilize it to send small goods into space, such as experiments and satellites.
In the most recent test, the 1.6-ton spacecraft was underslung to a Chinook heavy-lift chopper of the Indian Air Force. The helicopter raised the spacecraft to a height of 4.5 km and then released it 4.5 kilometers from the airport.
At a sideways distance of 500 meters, the plane was deliberately dropped off of alignment with the runway centerline.
The aircraft was perfectly aligned with the runway during its first landing test in April 2023; but, during its second test, which was conducted in March 2024, it was 150 meters off from the runway centerline.
In each of the three tests, the spacecraft touched down on the runway centerline with perfect precision, even at over 320 kmph.
The RLV was launched by rocket in 2016 to a height of 65 km. After that, it descended back into the denser regions of the atmosphere at velocities close to five times the speed of sound, landing on a synthetic runway in the Bay of Bengal.
The Director of ISRO’s VSSC, Dr. Unnikrishnan Nair, told WION that the most advanced landing trial to yet is the most recent one.
“The spacecraft was purposefully 500 meters laterally from the runway centerline at the moment of the drop. Once more, the aircraft’s internal systems flawlessly carried out their functions, enabling the third straight landing on the runway’s centerline. Citing a photograph of the landed jet, he claimed, “The plane was finally at 11 cm or 0.1 meter from the runway centerline, from an initial distance of 500 meters.”
This RLV-TD car is only intended for demonstration; the actual vehicle would be roughly 1.6 times larger, or equivalent to an SUV.
When it is finished, the operational RLV, also known as the “Pushpak,” is supposed to be put on a modified GSLV rocket and sent into space, where it would be able to operate its payloads and conduct experiments while in orbit. It may even be able to put tiny satellites into orbit.
The spacecraft may operate in low Earth orbit for as long as one month before performing deorbiting on its own, reentering the atmosphere at extremely high temperatures and speeds, and bringing the craft to a runway landing.
This guarantees that, following a few renovations, the spaceplane can be used to its maximum capacity.
The US space shuttle and the Soviet Buran spaceplane are comparable to the RLV in many aspects.
