On Sunday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) accomplished an important milestone with the successful completion of the third and last Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Landing Experiment (LEX). The LEX series came to an end with this test, which took place at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Chitradurga, Karnataka, at 7:10 IST.
With an emphasis on the winged vehicle termed Pushpak’s exact horizontal landing, ISRO highlighted the achievement on X, the former Twitter. At a height of 4.5 kilometres, the vehicle was dropped from an Indian Air Force Chinook chopper. Pushpak demonstrated enhanced autonomous capabilities in difficult circumstances by successfully executing runway landings and cross-range correction manoeuvres on its own.
Reusing the winged body and flying components from the LEX-02 mission, the mission’s goal was to replicate high-speed landing conditions for a vehicle returning from orbit, demonstrating ISRO’s strong design and reuse capabilities. Pushpak used its nose wheel steering system and rudder to keep the runway stable during the ground roll phase.
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) led a team of ISRO centres, the Indian Air Force, and other organisations in this cooperative mission. S. Somanath, Chairman of ISRO, commended the group for their ongoing achievements.
