India's ISRO performs successful space shuttle test launch.
12 replies, posted
[QUOTE][t]http://images.indianexpress.com/2016/05/isro.jpg[/t]
The Indian Space Research Organization on Monday joined the race to develop a space vehicle that can fly numerous times into space like aeroplanes by successfully conducting the maiden test flight of a Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
[I]“Today, May 23, 2016 ISRO successfully flight tested India’s first winged body aerospace vehicle operating in hypersonic flight regime,” ISRO said in an official statement after the test flight. [/I]
In the experimental mission an HS9 solid rocket booster lifted the RLV-TD from its launch pad at 7 am to a height of 56 km where the RLV TD separated from the rocket and climbed to a height of 65 km before automatically steering itself back for a landing in the Bay of Bengal some 450 km away from the Sriharikota space station.
Source:
[URL]http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/science/rlv-td-indias-first-reusable-space-shuttle-launched-from-sriharikota/[/URL]
RLV-TD Wiki:
[URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLV_Technology_Demonstration_Programme[/URL][/QUOTE]
Great start to a program but whoever wrote that article was a bit too optimistic about India's shuttle program
They cite how India scours other people's data to learn what to avoid but shuttles of this type all have some critical flaws that can't be worked around, for example the buran and the sts were designed independently, but the Soviets came to many of the same design conclusions the designers at NASA did, so it's nieve to think you can read out of the solutions manual and build a cheap space plane, they're fiendishly difficult to engineer
[editline]23rd May 2016[/editline]
Sierra Nevada Corp has access to actual shuttles, and the engineers and technical documents from a nearly 40 year program and still have trouble building something comparatively much simpler
I believe the ESA tested a shuttle like device last year as well, I forgot what it was called though.
Still I think shuttles are a dead end for now and the future of reusability in the short term will be SpaceX style lander rockets. Maybe in the long term we'll find a way to use sram jets to make shuttle space flight viable.
[QUOTE=Whomobile;50381223]I believe the ESA tested a shuttle like device last year as well, I forgot what it was called though.
Still I think shuttles are a dead end for now and the future of reusability in the short term will be SpaceX style lander rockets. Maybe in the long term we'll find a way to use sram jets to make shuttle space flight viable.[/QUOTE]
It depends, the Sierra Nevada shuttle could launch on top of an upgraded falcon, which would allow the rocket to be reusable, as well as the crew vehicle, and there are merits to the shuttle descent as opposed to a capsule descent
Wasnt the US space shuttle program born in the aftermath of having the Apollo programs funding cut? I remember hearing somewhere that the people in charge at NASA really did not want their funding to be cut again so they invested in a program that had potential military applications, like a space shuttle.
The US space shuttle program was a great program that accomplished many amazing things, and I am glad that we had it, but I think that it was a little short sighted.
[QUOTE=Sableye;50381237]It depends, the Sierra Nevada shuttle could launch on top of an upgraded falcon, which would allow the rocket to be reusable, as well as the crew vehicle, and there are merits to the shuttle descent as opposed to a capsule descent[/QUOTE]
Why bother when the crewed dragon is already reusable?
[editline]23rd May 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=Whomobile;50381223]I believe the ESA tested a shuttle like device last year as well, I forgot what it was called though.
Still I think shuttles are a dead end for now and the future of reusability in the short term will be SpaceX style lander rockets. Maybe in the long term we'll find a way to use sram jets to make shuttle space flight viable.[/QUOTE]
The US Air Force has a shuttle like this thats been on three missions last I checked.
[img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/McYEwnZ.jpg[/img_thumb]
[QUOTE=OvB;50381350]The US Air Force has a shuttle like this thats been on three missions last I checked.
[img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/McYEwnZ.jpg[/img_thumb][/QUOTE]
Four missions, that's the X-37B. It was last launched last May and remains in orbit to this day. It was meant to be there for only 200 days and then return so I'm not sure what's going on with it. It uses many of the same technologies that people considered "flawed" as the space shuttle, including the thermal protection tiles. It's currently a standard fuel propellant not a scramjet.
He might be thinking of the Boeing X-51 whose predecessor was the X-43 which was meant to lead towards the development of a single stage to orbit craft but never did.
[QUOTE=mecaguy03;50381324]Wasnt the US space shuttle program born in the aftermath of having the Apollo programs funding cut? I remember hearing somewhere that the people in charge at NASA really did not want their funding to be cut again so they invested in a program that had potential military applications, like a space shuttle.
The US space shuttle program was a great program that accomplished many amazing things, and I am glad that we had it, but I think that it was a little short sighted.[/QUOTE]
Many of the shortcomings of the shuttle are a direct result of the military imposing extreme requirements on the vehicle for "national security reasons". One could argue that it's also one of the reasons why the shuttle never ended up being as reusable and profitable as it was expected.
[QUOTE=OvB;50381350]Why bother when the crewed dragon is already reusable?
[editline]23rd May 2016[/editline]
The US Air Force has a shuttle like this thats been on three missions last I checked.
[img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/McYEwnZ.jpg[/img_thumb][/QUOTE]
Dragon still has a steep re-entry burn, the shuttle allowed for more fragile experiments
India stands out in that it's developed some truly solid [url=http://missilethreat.com/defense-systems/prithvi-air-defense-pad/]missile defense technology[/url] and some pretty impressive [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni-VI]nuclear-capable ICBMs[/url], so they've got top aerospace scientists and a better shot at a successful space program than most.
I wish them luck - someone's got to do it, and the USA sure isn't right now.
The one commendable thing about India's space program is its not quite the public works program like Congress has set up, it is one of the few high tech programs in India for sure, but it's not setup like NASA where every bolt is sub contracted out to every state
[QUOTE=Sableye;50384313]The one commendable thing about India's space program is its not quite the public works program like Congress has set up, it is one of the few high tech programs in India for sure, but it's not setup like NASA where every bolt is sub contracted out to every state[/QUOTE]
That sounds like NASA's setup is a logistical nightmare if they've got a reliance on so many different companies to produce what they need. India's government lacks for neither money nor talent. The country is home to a sixth of the world's population, and there's plenty to draw from.
The only reason the US government funded the Apollo program and had an interest in space in the first place is because they were afraid that during the Cold War the Soviets would put nuclear weapons on the moon.
India is similarly in a cold war with China right now (Pakistan being no serious threat because of the country's domestic problems), and they've been going full into development of their military capability and space program. Oh, and they're not one of the countries that signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. They're actively working on expanding their nuclear arsenal and developing more efficient warhead delivery methods - including a fleet of nuclear submarines that have just been field tested.
The reputed range of their current ICBM platform, the AGNI VI, is 12,000km - about the range of the Minuteman III.
Makes you wonder why they're interested in space now.
However, India seems unlikely to use its weapons irresponsibly.
The country is the world's most populous democracy, in good standing with the UN, allied with NATO, Russia and Japan, and furthermore has a No-First-Use policy for its nukes.
NASA's setup is a nightmare, it's why their new rocket coats 1 billion per, they have to build it with shuttle parts and all the transport and sub contracting costs forced upon NASA are outragious, and if by some stroke of luck they manage to launch 3, they will have run out of engines because the whole shebang is using literally space shuttle engines which haven't been manufactured for several decades
Right now everyone is expanding their nuclear arsenal, for good or bad. Here in the US we introduced a smart bomb nuke that basically when dropped from aircraft can always hit its target, and there's plans to modernize our ICBMs, which is probably still for the better, in Russia and China they're building new more powerful ICBMs which is worrisome, India is rapidly adapting their space program technology to ICBM use as well
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