The second half of July will witness an experiment by ISRO to launch a plane-shaped reusable launch vehicle, reported the IANS.
"It is going to be an important engineering experiment for the Indian space agency. A small aeroplane-shaped vehicle would be launched from here sometime during the second half of July," M.Y.S.Prasad, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) told IANS over phone from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
The test will be done in Sriharikita, 80km from Chennai, where the ISRO usually launches all their rockets. ISRO stated that the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket will have the launch vehicle mounted on a strap-on solid booster, which contains 9 tonnes of fuel.
The space vehicle will be separated from the rocket at an altitude of 70km and the vehicle will then glide down back to the Earth at a speed of 2km per second. The last year witnessed the ISRO testing a cup-shaped nodule called Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment for a detailed study of the spacecraft’s re-entry and aero-braking systems. The crew capsule was tested from a height of 126km, after which it landed into the Bay of Bengal using three parachutes. The test vehicle in July will not feature any parachutes, but will rely completely on the wings of the module to help glide and return to earth.
