ISRO launched first autonomous landing vehicle from helicopter

05/04/2023

ISRO launched first autonomous landing vehicle from helicopter

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted its autonomous landing of first Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and demonstrated its capability to deliver low-earth orbit satellites in space and return to the ground for reusing a subsequent mission.

The recent success of ISRO is considered to pave the way for an 80 per cent reduction in the costs of satellite launching missions.

ISRO released the Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing from a helicopter hovering 4.5 km above ground and it has landed safely on its wheels with its feature of ‘ready to be used again’.

Experiment of autonomous landing mission:

The successful experiment of Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV-LEX) was carried out at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Challakere in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district.

According to ISRO, LEX mission successfully accomplished the final approach phase that concurred with the re-entry flight path demonstrating an autonomous with high-speed (350 kmph) landing.

Indian Space Research Organisation has a target to reduce the cost of rocket launching by 80%.

ISRO have planned further experiments to add a simulated payload over taking off with and returning in an autonomous mode after releasing the payload in space at a predetermined location/orbit.

As the entire process is autonomous, the vehicle has not yet achieved orbital height or exited the atmosphere into space.

The successful experiment had planned after ISRO’s previous test in 2016. At that time RLV HEX (Hypersonic Flight Experiment) space plane set ashore at a precise location fine tune over the waters of the Bay of Bengal.

It is an advantage that would offer a major encouragement to space agencies in terms of cost and efficiency.