RLV consists of a fuselage (body), a nose cap, double delta wings and twin vertical tails. It also features symmetrically placed active control surfaces called Elevons and Rudder. This technology demonstrator was boosted to Mach no: 5 by a conventional solid booster (HS9) designed for low burn rate. The selection of materials like special alloys, composites and insulation materials for developing an RLVand the crafting of its parts is very complex and demands highly skilled manpower. Many high technology machinery and test equipment were utilised for building this vehicle.

1. 13-03-2024 Side 1
Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Reusable Launch Vehicle
Rahul Gupta (202005111)
Mechanical Engineering Department
Madan Mohan Malviya University of
Technology Gorakhpur (UP State Govt. University)
Email: 2020051111@mmmut.ac.in

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
• Introduction
• History
• Stages to Orbit
• Configuration of RLV
• Flight Profile of RLV
• Material Used
• Advantages
• Disadvantages
• Applications
• Conclusion
Contents

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Reusable Launch Vehicle (or Reusable
Launch System)
• It is a launch system which is capable of launching a launch
vehicle into space more than once.
• RLV's, due to the fact that they are re-used, will dramatically
reduce the cost of access to low earth orbit & highly reliable
access to space.
• It takes off vertically on the back down of an expandable
rocket and then glides back down like an aircraft.
• Landing phase of an RLV can either land on a runway or
perform a splashdown.
• RLV can fly at subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic Mach
number regime.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
HISTORY
• Thought of RLV started in 1950’s, but serious
attempts at completely RLVs started in 1990s.
• The most prominent were the McDonnell-Douglas
DC-X of 1993 and the Lockheed X-33 Venture Star of
1999.
• Falcon 9 – Space X recently converted into partial
RLV by returning the first stage to reuse.
• New Shephard rocket – Blue Origin , the first proven
vertical take-off to vertical landing rocket.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Stages To Orbit
• Single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) – SSTO vehicles
reaches the space orbit carrying small payloads (9000
to 20000 kg) without losing any hardware to LEO(Low-
Earth Orbit). It reaches orbit from the surface of a body
using only propellants and fluids and without
expending tanks, engines, or other major hardware.
• Two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO ) – A TSTO vehicle uses
an air-breathing first stage and a separate or parallel,
rocket-propelled second stage in order to achieve
orbital velocity.
• Three-stage-to-orbit – It is most commonly used
rocket system to attain Earth orbit. It uses three distinct
stages of thrust to reach the velocity and its orbit.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Configuration of RLV

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Configuration of RLV
• Nose Cap – Blunt canted ogive nose chosen for forebody
for better longitudinal stability and reduced directional
instability level in supersonic and hypersonic regime.
• Elevon and Rudder – In high dynamic pressure region
longitudinal, lateral and directional control are done by using
control surfaces called Elevon and Rudder.
• Wings – The wings consist of a double-delta plan form
which provides enough lift to fly to space and reduce the
friction during descent. These wings having wing span of
3.6m and wing area of 6 square meter.
• Vertical Tail – Twin vertical tails are provided for directional
stability when it contacts with air.
Descent Vehicle Configuration

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Ascent Vehicle Configuration
• It consists of Demonstrator
Vehicle and a solid booster.
• Booster length is 2.6 times the
Vehicle height.
• Four Fins placed in X-
configuration at base to improve
the longitudinal stability and
controllability during ascent phase.
• Each fin is divided into metallic
fixed and composite movable parts
used for pitch, yaw and roll
controls.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Flight Profile of RLV

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Flight Profile of RLV
• Ascent phase: The solid rocket booster lifts the vehicle
off the pad and burns for 91 seconds to propel it high
into the atmosphere.
• Coasting phase: After the booster shuts down, the
launch stack continues on an unpowered ascent
trajectory to the apogee.
• Booster separation: At about 111s after launch, the
booster separates from the vehicle as it ascends to
apogee.
• The peak of flight: The peak of flight or apogee occurs
at 65 km, after which the RLV-TD starts a high-speed
descent back into the denser parts of the atmosphere.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Flight Profile of RLV
• Hypersonic testing: The flight control and thermal
protection systems are systematically tested during
the hypersonic phase.
• Landing manoeuvre simulation: After the
hypersonic stage, the RLV-TD lands on a hypothetical
runway to simulate an actual landing high above the
ocean.
• Splashdown: After the landing manoeuvres are
successfully tested, the RLV-TD splashes down into
the ocean to be recovered.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Materials Used

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Advantages
• Cost will reduced by almost 50 percent.
• Booster and Stage 1 can be reused.
• Time to build rocket for next mission is
reduced.
• Promotes the interplanetary travel.
• Space debris will reduce.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Disadvantages
• Refurbishing a rocket engine is also expensive and can
take longer time for repair.
• Cost of manufacturing RLV is also high.
• Climate condition should be normal while take off and
also during landing.
• Vertical landing is very complicated and expensive.
• RLV experiences high pressure and vibration during its
flight.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Applications
• In future, RLV can be used more than once
to send satellite to its orbits.
• It can be used to send a cargo to
International Space Station.
• In future, RLV can be used as commercial
space crafts, a Space Travel.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
Conclusion
• RLVs have the highest development costs and
technical risks, but the technology is within current
state of art.
• The RLV successfully achieved all its milestones,
such as hypersonic flight, autonomous landing,
demonstration of flight control at hypersonic speeds,
and thermal insulation needed for orbital re-entry
missions.
• Cost for launching becomes much cheaper as it
reduces material cost due to reusability.
• Future RLV are to be developed through an
extensive flight demonstration.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur
References
• K. Sivan, and S. Pandian, “An overview of
Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology
Demonstrator”, Current Science - Indian
Academy of Sciences, January 2018.
• Mohamed Ragab and F. McNeil Cheatwood,
“Launch Vehicle Recovery and Reuse”, AIAA,
SPACE 2015 Conference and Exposition, 2015.

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Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ. of Technology, Gorakhpur