Light, medium, heavy: Is Isro working on 3 reusable rocket designs at once?

Light, medium, heavy: Is Isro working on 3 reusable rocket designs at once?

Isro's recent announcements suggest it wants to secure a competitive advantage as quickly as possible in all segments of the launch services market: light, medium and heavy

Current Affairs: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is working on at least three different designs of reusable launch vehicles at the same time.

Together with its endeavours to increase the number of objectives per mission and deploy purpose-built rockets, it seems like Isro wants to secure a competitive advantage as quickly as possible in all segments of the launch services market: light, medium and heavy.

Last week, Isro chairman K. Sivan told Times of India that they will be soon testing a prototype two-stage rocket in which both stages will be recoverable after launch. Sivan’s specifications suggest that this project is in addition to, and not in relation to, two others aimed at building rockets with reusable parts.

The first project that Isro began testing is simply called the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). It is modelled along NASA’s Space Shuttle.

However, differences include the fact that it will be powered by five semicryogenic engines during ascent and a scramjet engine during descent.

When completed by around 2030, it will be able to lift over 10,000 kg to the low-Earth orbit.

Isro doesn’t yet have a testable prototype in the second project yet. In fact, its details emerged only a month...read more

→News Source: BS / Business Standard←