Air breathing propulsion: ISRO completes second test flight

Bengaluru: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday successfully carried out the second experimental flight to demonstrate air breathing propulsion technologies.

During the test, propulsion systems were symmetrically mounted on either side of an RH-560 sounding rocket which was subsequently launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, at 7 am. ISRO said the test flight achieved “satisfactory performance” of the sounding rocket along with the successful ignition of the air breathing propulsion systems.

Air breathing propulsion facilitates low-cost space transportation by eliminating the need to carry oxidiser for combustion, making use of the atmospheric oxygen and, in turn, improving the payload fraction (the fraction of payload to the lift-off mass). ISRO successfully conducted the first experimental mission of its air-breathing engine, Scramjet, towards the realisation of these systems in August, 2016.

The space agency said nearly 110 parameters were monitored during Monday’s test flight to assess its performance. It said flight data from the mission will be useful for the next phase of development of these propulsion systems.

In the run-up to the test flight, multiple ground tests were carried out at various ISRO centres including the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre and ISRO Propulsion Complex, and the CSIR – National Aerospace Laboratories in Bengaluru.

RH-560 is a two-stage, solid motor-based suborbital rocket designed as a cost-effective flying test-bed for the demonstration of advanced technologies. It is the heaviest among ISRO’s sounding rockets.