Space recovery capsule to be launched in PSLVC7 in Jan 10

Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, Jan 4 (UNI) In a major leap, the country will launch a Space Recovery Capsule Experiment (SRE) capsule on January 10, demonstrating its prowess to bring orbiting capsules back to earth, Vikram Sarabahai Space Centre Director B N Suresh said today.

Describing this as a quantum jump forward, he told the Indian Science Congress that this was a precursor to developing a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), to be launched by the end of this year.

The SRE would be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), from Sriharikota, the country's spaceport. PSLV-C7 (the seventh operational mission of PSLV) would also place into orbit a 650 kg CARTOSAT-II, the country's second satellite for cartographical applications, and two other payloads, 56 kg Lapan Tubsat of Indonesia and and a six kg micro satellite of Argentina.

The satellites would be placed in a 635-km polar sun-synchronous orbit.

Space Commission Chairman Madhavan Nair had rushed to New Delhi to brief the Prime Minister about the launch, he informed.

Later talking to media, he said the SRE was intended to provide a platform for key micro-gravity experiments in space, and demonstrate reentry technology through a process of 'de-boosting' the space capsule and enabling it to return to the earth's atmosphere, and then parachuting it safely back from space for landing in the sea.

The splashdown has been planned about 140 km off Sriharikota in the Bay of Bengal. The mission sequence for the SRE would be for 10 to 12 days, at the end of which it would be brought back to earth.

Reusability of launch vehicles would result in significant reduction in satellite launch costs.

The RLV-TD (technology demonstrator for reusable launch vehicle) would look like a small aircraft. It had been configured with a total mass of 1.5 tonne, 6.25 m long and 2.3 m height. It would have a lift-off mass of 13.20 tonne and a speed range of Mach 6 and above, if hypersonic propulsion was used, he said.

Simultaneously, ISRO was also developing 'SCRAMJET', an air-breathing' jet propulsion system in which the rocket used atmospheric oxygen for propulsion. The ultimate objective was to marry the RLV with SCRAMJET (a supersonic combustion system), he said. SCRAMJET would travel at speeds exceeding Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound).

The RLV was being designed for retrieval of spacecraft for refurbishment and reuse, in-orbit servicing of space systems and to enable manned missions.

UNI