Overall Goal is to Advance the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) programme towards operational capability.
Mission Details - RLV landing experiment (RLV-LEX)
Vehicle: Pushpak (unmanned winged prototype)
Location: Aeronautical Test Range, Chitradurga, Karnataka (subject to weather)
Number of Missions: 3 (LEX-01, LEX-02, LEX-03) - LEX-03 is the final mission.
Key Differences in LEX-03 Compared to LEX-02, Pushpak will be released at a greater lateral distance from the runway (500 meters vs 150 meters).
Reducing the impact load during landing by lowering the sink rate (rate of descent).
Real-time Kinematics (RTK) package for improved navigation.
Pushpak is Designed and developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Thumba.
Next Stage of RLV Programme (RLV-TD) is to Use an unmanned Orbital Re-entry Vehicle (ORV) - 1.6 times larger than Pushpak.
Launch the ORV into a 400 km orbit using a modified Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) within two years from now
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