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India could launch as soon as May its first prototype of a reusable spaceplane. The program, known as RLV-TD (Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstration), was announced four years ago and consists of four flights to test powered hypersonic flight, autonomous landing and atmospheric reentry. The program will set the foundations for the Avatar program, a full-scale unmanned SSTO (single stage to orbit). Avatar could fly as soon as 2025, depending on the timescale of the technology demonstration program. The first flight (HEX, or Hypersonic Flight Experiment) will feature a 1.5 ton RLV. Liftoff is set from the Satish Dhawan space centre on the island of Sriharikota. The launch vehicle will be a one-stage S-9, basically a solid rocket booster that will propell the spaceplane up to Mach 5.9. The spaceplane will separate from the launch vehicle (which will be lost upon reentry) and coast up to 70 km on a suborbital trajectory. Immediately after, it will start reentering. Its scramjet motor will guide it to a landing in the Bay of Bengal. In the near future, a landing strip capable of accomodating vehicles returning from orbital or suborbital flights will be built in the Satish Dhawan space centre. The images appear to be very similar to Europe's IXV which flew last year on top of a Vega rocket. Well then, good luck to India! Looking forward to following this mission.
