CHENNAI : In its quest to build its first Resuable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and to bring down the launch cost significantly, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to conduct the air-breathing propulsion experiment using its RH-560 rocket fitted with a supersonic combustion ramjet (Scramjet) engine from the spaceport of Sriharikota, tomorrow.
ISRO sources said the launch of aircraft-shaped RH-560 sounding rocket to test the scramjet (air breathing) engine, to be used during the atmospheric phase of the rocket’s flight, would take place at 0600 hrs tomorrow.
The scramjet engine will help in bringing down the launch cost by reducing he amount of oxidiser to be carried along with the fuel.
This test was to have been done on July 28, but the search by the Indian Air Force and the Navy for the IAF’s transport aircraft AN-32, which went missing over the Bay of Bengal on July 22, has delayed it by a month.
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, has developed the engines to be used in the RH-560 rocket.
The scramjet engine was part of the ISRO’S plans to build India’s first reusable launch vehicle (RLV) by 2030.
During the test, the engine would be fitted on a two-stage RH-560 sounding rocket and launched to an altitude of about 70 km using conventional engines.
There, the first stage will break off and fall into the Bay of Bengal. The second stage will coast horizontally for a bit, travelling at over six-times the speed of sound. This is when the scramjet engine will fire for five seconds.
RH-560 signifies two things–RH means its a Rohini-class sounding rocket and 560 is its diameter in millimetres. Its modified second stage, to which the scramjet engine was being affixed, was called the Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV).
According to ISRO, it is a scaled-down prototype of the RLV that will eventually fly on missions about 14 years from now.
To be more economical than ISRO’s existing launch vehicles, the RLV should be able to carry payloads weighing 10,000-20,000 kg to the low earth orbit.
Tomorrow’s testing was the second in the series of experiments, the Indian Space Agency would be conducting en route to developing the first RLV.
On May 23, ISRO successfully flight tested India’s first winged body aerospace vehicle operating in hypersonic flight regime. (AGENCIES)
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