ISRO all set to test flight its indigenously developed scramjet engine tomorrow

27 August, Chennai

In its quest to build its first Resuable Launch Vehicle(RLV) and to bring down the launch cost significantly, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to conduct the air-breathing propulsion experiment using its RH-560 rocket fitted with a supersonic combustion ramjet (Scramjet) engine from the spaceport of Sriharikota, tomorrow.

ISRO sources said the launch of aircraft-shaped RH-560 sounding rocket to test the scramjet (air breathing) engine, to be used during the atmospheric phase of the rocket’s flight, would take place at 0600 hrs tomorrow.

The scramjet engine will help in bringing down the launch cost by reducing he amount of oxidiser to be carried along with the fuel.

This test was to have been done on July 28, but the search by the Indian Air Force and the Navy for the IAF’s transport aircraft AN-32, which went missing over the Bay of Bengal on July 22, has delayed it by a month.

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, has developed the engines to be used in the RH-560 rocket.