BANGALORE: The Centre has told the Parliament that the landing experiment of ISRO’s reusable launch vehicle (RLV) is planned for early next year
“The RLV project is under progress at ISRO. The RLV technology demonstrator (RLV-TD) was successfully flight tested on May 23, 2016, from the spaceport in Sriharikota, validating the critical technologies such as autonomous navigation, guidance & control, reusable thermal protection system and re-entry mission management,” Union minister Jitendra Singh said in a written reply.
“…The next test planned under the project is the first runway landing experiment or RLV-LEX, which is scheduled early next year from the aeronautical test range in Challakere, Chitradurga,” he added.
Meanwhile, the first PS0M-XL motor, which forms the PS0 stage of ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL (PSLV-XL), produced by Nagpur-based company Economic Explosives Limited has been tested at the space agency’s spaceport in Sriharikota.