Reusable Launch Vehicle—Technology Demonstration Programme or RLV–TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that has been conceived by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) re-usable launch vehicle.

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On 23rd May 2016 India launched its first “reusable” space shuttle albeit a one-fifth scale model of the vehicle that it hopes will one day put satellites into space at rock-bottom prices.

The successful trial launch from Sriharikota, an island off the southeast coast of India, puts India’s space shuttle programme in direct competition with Elon Musk’s Space X and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin in the field of low-cost, reusable launch vehicles.

The 11-tonne Indian prototype is claimed to have cost just £10m to develop and 600 scientists who built the prototype over five years. By comparison, Space X’s Falcon Nine rocket costs £41m to produce .

in this experimental mission, the HS9 solid rocket booster carrying RLV-TD lifted off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota at 07:00hr IST. After a successful flight of 91.1second, HS9 burn out occurred, following which both HS9 and RLV-TD mounted on its top coasted to a height of about 56 km. At that height, RLV-TD separated from HS9 booster and further ascended to a height of about 65km.

From that peak altitude of 65 km, RLV-TD began its descent followed by atmospheric re-entry at around Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound). The vehicle’s Navigation, Guidance and Control system accurately steered the vehicle during this phase for safe descent. After successfully surviving a high temperatures of re-entry with the help of its Thermal Protection System (TPS), RLV-TD successfully glided down to the defined landing spot over Bay of Bengal, at a distance of about 450km from Sriharikota, thereby fulfilling its mission objectives. The vehicle was successfully tracked during its flight from ground stations at Sriharikota and a shipborne terminal. Total flight duration from launch to landing of this mission of the delta winged RLV-TD, lasted for about 770seconds.

In this flight, critical technologies such as autonomous navigation, guidance & control, reusable thermal protection system and re-entry mission management have been successfully validated.

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The quest to develop reusable spaceflight has led the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to develop a series of Technology Demonstration missions in a phased approach toward the introduction of a new Two-Stage To Orbit, winged, reusable launch vehicle.

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As part of this development sequence, ISRO has developed a four flight test sequence that will incrementally test the various flight characteristics its under-development Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) will experience during flight as well as the scramjet propulsion engines the RLV is planned to use.

This four flight test sequence includes
1.the Hypersonic Flight Experiment (HEX) (successfully tested today),
2.the Landing Experiment (LEX),
3.the Return Flight Experiment (REX),
4.and the Scramjet Propulsion Experiment (SPEX).

The mission that launched was HEX, the first test in the four-flight sequence.The HEX mission used a scaled prototype, called the Reusable Launch Vehicle – Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), of the RLV design.
In total, the RLV-TD is a 1.75 ton, 6.5 meter long vehicle that is able to achieve an altitude of approximately 70 kilometers.

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The RLV-TD was mounted atop a 1 meter in diameter, 9 ton solid booster (HS9) and launched from the first launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, previously known as the Sriharikota High Altitude Range, in southeastern India.
The HS9 booster launched the RLV-TD beyond most of Earth’s lower atmosphere.After a 90sec burn, the booster delivered the RLV-TD to the proper altitude before separating from the prototype and destructively fall back to Earth in the Bay of Bengal.

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Meanwhile, the RLV-TD continued on, falling back into Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic velocity.
During this hypersonic test, the RLV-TD pitched its nose up relative to the horizon and direction of travel – just as the Space Shuttles did during atmospheric entry.

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This allowed engineers to gather valuable in-flight data surrounding the performance of the vehicle’s thermal protection system (600 heat-resistant tiles and a carbon-carbon nose), its aerodynamic characteristics during hypersonic flight, and inform the overall design of the eventual full-scale RLV.

Since this was primarily a hypersonic flight technology demonstration mission, this particular RLV-TD did not carry the capability to return to land for landing.Therefore, once it performed its primary mission glide through the atmosphere, it splashed down into the Bay of Bengal.

The entire flight, from liftoff to splashdown was claimed to have lasted approximately 20 minutes.

Regardless of recoverability, HEX carried five distinct mission objectives, including: validating the aerodynamic design characteristics of the RLV during hypersonic flight, characterizing induced loads during hypersonic re-entry into the atmosphere, recovering the vehicle from the sea, assessing the performance of the carbon fibre used in construction of the nose of the vehicle, and demonstrating first stage separation sequencing.

Nigeria oh Nigeria!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3K2hg-HUDE

ISRO Reusable Launch Vehicle – Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) onboard video till rocket and shuttle separation

expected SPIN-OFF from this program

1.AVATAR (Aerobic Vehicle for Trans-atmospheric Hyper-sonic Aerospace Transportable Reusable Launch Vehicle) (CIVILIAN/MILITARY use)



The AVATAR is very different from a space shuttle, each being different in terms of technology and technical capabilities.

The idea is to develop a space-plane vehicle that can take off from conventional airfields. Its liquid air cycle engine would collect air in the atmosphere on the way up, liquefy it, separate oxygen and store it on board for subsequent flight beyond the atmosphere.

Avatar is projected to weigh 25 tons, of which 60% of that mass would be liquid hydrogen fuel.The oxygen required by the vehicle for combustion in outer space would be collected from the atmosphere during takeoff, thus reducing the need to carry oxygen during launch.The notional specification is for a payload weighing up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) to low Earth orbit and to withstand up to 100 launches and reentries.



If built successfully, Avatar would take off horizontally like a conventional airplane from a conventional airstrip using turbo-ramjet engines that burn hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen.During this cruising phase, an on-board system would collect air from the atmosphere, from which liquid oxygen would be separated and stored and used to burn the stored hydrogen in the final flight phase to attain orbit.

Engines - turbo-ramjet, scramjet and cryogenic .
Fuel - LOX/LH2 (liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen)

time to completion 10 years

2.HSTDV (Hyper-sonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle) (MILITARY use)



The HSTDV is an unmanned scram-jet demonstration aircraft for hyper sonic speed flight.
The Defense Research and Development Laboratory’s Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) is intended to attain autonomous scram-jet flight for 20 sec., using a solid rocket launch booster. The research will also inform India’s interest in reusable launch vehicles. The eventual target is to reach Mach 6.5 at an altitude of 32.5 km. (20 mi.).

The 1-metric-ton, 5.6-meter (18-ft.)-long air vehicle under construction features a flattened octagonal cross section with mid-body stub-wings and raked tail fins and a 3.7-meter rectangular section air intake. The scram-jet engine is located under the mid-body, with the aft-body serving as part of the exhaust nozzle. Development work on the engine is also in progress.

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Two parallel fences in the fore-body are meant to reduce spillage and increase thrust. Part span flaps are provided at the trailing edge of the wings for roll control. A deflect-able nozzle cowl at the combustor end can deflect up to 25 deg. to ensure satisfactory performance during power-off and power-on phases.

Surfaces of the airframe’s bottom, wings and tail are made of titanium alloy, while aluminum alloy comprises the top surface. The inner surface of the double-wall engine is niobium alloy and the outer surface is nimonic alloy.

Due to technology denial of material for the scram-jet engine, a new program was initiated and the materials were developed in-house. This led to self-sufficiency in the area and the scram-jet engine was ground tested successfully for 20s instead of the initial 3s.

In November 2010, DRDO invested ₹3 to 4 billion (US$66 to 88 million) for setting up a much-needed hyper-sonic wind tunnel at Hyderabad’s Missile Complex.

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LAB TESTING of scram-jet engine for powering HSTDV

India is one of the 3-4 countries to have planned an autonomous flight of the hyper-sonic air-breathing vehicle; the first being the USA which demonstrated the flights through X-43 and X-51 programs. France is also planning the autonomous flight sometime in 2015 through LEA program.
The HSTDV project directorate was formed in 2005. It is now confirmed that technology for a 600-second test to cover a range of 1,500 km is also taking shape to establish future strike technologies against hardened and time-critical targets.

time to completion 10 years

Indian ION THRUSTER prototype undergoing tests for electrical propulsion of satellites
and after 15 year or so for propelling spacecrafts in space.