In its endeavour to make rockets used for launching satellites reusable, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will explore for the first time the possibility of runway landing of rockets just as airplanes do at airports.

“After releasing the satellite, the launch vehicle, which has no pilot, will fall very steeply through the sky. It will come like a falling football. We need to change its angle in such a manner that it comes and lands automatically with the help of wings,” said ISRO Chairman K Sivan here on Friday.

For the technology demonstration, scheduled to be carried out in the middle of this year, ISRO will take the shuttle to an altitude of 3 km using a helicopter and drop it. The shuttle is designed in such a manner that it would land automatically on a runway. According to a senior ISRO official, an airport at Challakere, near Bengaluru, will be used for the experiment.

This is the second such experiment in reusable-launch-vehicle technology being carried out by the space agency. In 2016, ISRO successfully test flew a winged experimental reusable launch vehicle (RLV) that splashed down in the sea after reaching an altitude of 65 km. Reusable launch vehicles are expected to slash the cost of space launches to almost one-tenth.

Apart from the RLV technology demonstration, ISRO also plans to carry out the maiden flight of its small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV), a rocket capable of carrying a payload weighing between 300 and 500 kg, in July. An SSLV can be integrated in 72 hours, making launches on demand a reality. “If anybody approaches ISRO to launch a small satellite, we would be able to launch it in three days flat,” said the ISRO chairman.

Chandrayaan-2 launch

According to Sivan, the much-delayed launch of Chandrayaan-2 — India’s lunar lander — is now scheduled for March-April this year.

The launch, originally scheduled for last April, was delayed as the spacecraft had to be reconfigured to bring in more redundancy to ensure safety as recommended by experts, he said.

To promote collaboration with academics working in other disciplines as well as with industry, ISRO has decided to set up six incubation centres in all the geographic regions in the country.

The first one has already been set up at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Agartala, he said. Similar centres will come up in NITs in Jalandhar, Trichy and Rourkela, as well as IIT-Varanasi and Indore.