ISRO conducts flight experiment of air breathing propulsion system

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday successfully carried out a second experimental flight for the demonstration of air breathing propulsion technology. The propulsion systems were symmetrically mounted on either side of a RH-560 sounding rocket and launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said in a statement.

“The flight test achieved satisfactory performance of the sounding rocket along with successful ignition of the Air Breathing propulsion systems. Nearly 110 parameters were monitored during the flight to assess its performance,” ISRO said.

It added that the flight data from the mission will be useful for the next phase of development of air breathing propulsion systems. Prior to the mission, multiple ground tests were carried out at the various ISRO centres including Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre & ISRO Propulsion Complex and also at the CSIR -National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru, it was stated. RH-560 is a two-stage, solid motor based sub-orbital rocket that is designed to be utilised as a cost-effective flying test bed for the demonstration of advanced technologies, ISRO noted.