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CHENNAI: India is all set for the maiden launch tomorrow of an indigenous winged Reusable Launch Vehicle(RLV)that is being dubbed as its own space shuttle from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.
"The weather is fine and the countdown for the launch is on schedule," K Sivan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), told PTI this evening.
The RLV Technology Demonstration ( RLVTD ), that is ultimately aimed at putting satellites into orbit around earth and then reenter atmosphere, will be carried up on a solid rocket motor. The ninemetre long rocket weighs 11 tonnes.
"The launch window for the RLVTD is between 7am and 11 am," a senior ISRO official said.
Very similar in its looks to the us space shuttle, the the double deltawinged RLVTD being experimented is a scale model which is almost 6 times smaller than the final version.
The 6.5 m long 'aeroplane'like structure weighs 1.75 tonnes and will be hoisted into the atmosphere on the special rocket booster.
After launch from the Sriharikota spaceport, about 100 km from here, it will be glided back onto a virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal, some 500 km from the coast.
The vehicle will be taken to a height of over 70 km and released for its reentry into the atmosphere.
The mission, known as the hypersonic flight experiment, is expected to last about 10 minutes from liftoff to splashdown.
The RLVTD is described as "a very preliminary step" in the development of a reusable rocket, whose final version is expected to take 10-15 years.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...ace-shuttle-tomorrow/articleshow/52389095.cms
PS- some indentation maybe out of place. The ET site is very unfriendly to copying articles. If any confusion please refer to link
"The weather is fine and the countdown for the launch is on schedule," K Sivan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), told PTI this evening.
The RLV Technology Demonstration ( RLVTD ), that is ultimately aimed at putting satellites into orbit around earth and then reenter atmosphere, will be carried up on a solid rocket motor. The ninemetre long rocket weighs 11 tonnes.
"The launch window for the RLVTD is between 7am and 11 am," a senior ISRO official said.
Very similar in its looks to the us space shuttle, the the double deltawinged RLVTD being experimented is a scale model which is almost 6 times smaller than the final version.
The 6.5 m long 'aeroplane'like structure weighs 1.75 tonnes and will be hoisted into the atmosphere on the special rocket booster.
After launch from the Sriharikota spaceport, about 100 km from here, it will be glided back onto a virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal, some 500 km from the coast.
The vehicle will be taken to a height of over 70 km and released for its reentry into the atmosphere.
The mission, known as the hypersonic flight experiment, is expected to last about 10 minutes from liftoff to splashdown.
The RLVTD is described as "a very preliminary step" in the development of a reusable rocket, whose final version is expected to take 10-15 years.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...ace-shuttle-tomorrow/articleshow/52389095.cms
PS- some indentation maybe out of place. The ET site is very unfriendly to copying articles. If any confusion please refer to link
can't wait
