In the early hours of Sunday, 2nd April 2023, ISRO joined by @DRDO India @IAF_MCC, successfully conducts Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) Chitradurga, Karnataka, India.
ISRO quotes
“With LEX, the dream of an Indian Reusable Launch Vehicle arrives one step closer to reality.”
ISRO successfully conducts the Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, Karnataka in the early hours on April 2, 2023.
It is for the first time in the world, a winged body has been carried to an altitude of 4.5 km by a helicopter and released for carrying out an autonomous landing on a runway.
The RLV took off at 7:10 am IST by a Chinook Helicopter of the Indian Air Force as an underslung load and flew to a height of 4.5 km (above MSL). The RLV was released in mid-air, at a down range of 4.6 km.
RLV then performed approach and landing maneuvers using the Integrated Navigation, Guidance & control system and completed an autonomous landing on the ATR air strip at 7:40 AM IST.
With this, ISRO successfully achieved the autonomous landing of a space vehicle.
The landing was carried out under the exact conditions of a Space Re-entry vehicle’s landing.
The RLV LEX demanded several state-of-the-art technologies including accurate Navigation hardware and software, Pseudolite system, Ka-band Radar Altimeter, NavIC receiver, indigenous Landing Gear, Aerofoil honey-comb fins and brake parachute system. LEX utilized several indigenous systems. Localized Navigation systems based on pseudolite systems, instrumentation, and sensor systems, etc. were developed by ISRO. These technologies developed for RLV LEX will turns other operational launch vehicles of ISRO more cost-effective.
Earlier, ISRO had demonstrated the re-entry of its winged vehicle RLV-TD in the HEX mission in May 2016. The LEX mission achieved the final approach phase that coincided with the re-entry return flight path exhibiting an autonomous, high speed (350 kmph) landing.
Along with ISRO, IAF, CEMILAC, ADE, and ADRDE contributed to this test. The IAF team hand in hand with the Project team and multiple sorties were conducted to perfect the achievement of release conditions. Dr. S Unnikrishnan Nair, Director, VSSC, and Shri Shyam Mohan N, Programme Director, ATSP guided the teams. Dr. Jayakumar M, Project Director, RLV was the Mission Director, and Shri Muthupandian J, Associate Project Director, RLV was the Vehicle Director for the mission. Shri Ramakrishna, Director, ISTRAC was present on the occasion. Chairman, ISRO/Secretary, DOS Shri S Somanath witnessed the test and congratulated the team.
Source for this article: ISRO Article