Chennai, Apr 2 (UNI) India's dream of having it's own Resuable Launch
Vehicle has become one step closer to reality, with the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday successfully conducting
the Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX).
The test was conducted at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga
in Karnataka in the early hours of today.
The RLV took off at 7:10 A.M by a Chinook Helicopter of the Indian Air
Force as an underslung load and flew to a height of 4.5 km (above MSL).
Once the predetermined pillbox parameters were attained, based on the
RLV's Mission Management Computer command, the RLV was released
in mid-air, at a down range of 4.6 km, ISRO said in a series of tweets.
Release conditions included 10 parameters covering position, velocity,
altitude and body rates, etc.
The release of RLV was autonomous. RLV then performed approach
and landing manoeuvers using the Integrated Navigation, Guidance
and control system and completed an autonomous landing on the ATR
air strip at 7:40 A.M.
With this, ISRO successfully achieved the autonomous landing of a
space vehicle.
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