The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Headquarters of the Integrated Defense Staff (HQ IDS) together conducted a successful test of hypersonic vehicles on Friday.

The nation’s leading space research organisation published a statement indicating that the combined hypersonic vehicle trial met specified objectives.

ISRO completes successful test of hypersonic vehicles

ISRO’s official Twitter account stated, “ISRO and JSIIC have jointly completed hypersonic vehicle trials, with all needed parameters met and hypersonic vehicle capability proved.”

What is a hypersonic vehicle?

A hypersonic vehicle is an aircraft, missile, or spacecraft with the ability to go faster than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. Countries such as China, India, Russia, and the United States have been attempting to improve the capabilities of their hypersonic weaponry, which is a cutting-edge technology.

Together with Russia, the Indian space agency has been researching hypersonic missiles.

As part of its Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle programme, Indian researchers are also developing an indigenous, dual-capable hypersonic cruise missile. According to reports, the indigenous Indian missile will be capable of launching both nuclear and conventional bombs.

ISRO completes first Trisonic Wind Tunnel blow down test

ISRO has also conducted the initial blow down test of the newly built Trisonic Wind Tunnel at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), according to the space agency.

The Trisonic Wind Tunnel is a method utilised to aid in the aerodynamic design of rockets and re-entry spacecrafts by measuring forces, moments, load distribution, and sustaining pressures and acoustic levels on a scale model.

The tunnel can be used to test space vehicles in three flight regimes: below the speed of sound, at the speed of sound, and above the speed of sound, hence the name “trisonic wind tunnel.”

ISRO Autonomous SCRAMJET test vehicle

HAVA Hypersonic Airbreathing Vehicle with Airframe integrated structure is being developed by ISRO.

Their won’t be any pumps or motors in this engine and it will just use atmospheric air, compress it at Hypersonic speed and use kerosene as fuel for combustion and producing thrust. The greatest advantage of using atmospheric air is the vehicle doesnt need to carry oxygen or oxidiser within itself reducing the amount of fuel that needs to be carried.

The test vehicle will travel at Hypersonic speeds for 250 seconds. Already knew test was performed at small scale when a test vehicle was accelerated at Hypersonic speeds using a sounding rocket which later performed autonomous flight.

The data collected technologies developed from this test will be largely useful in developing the space plane that we saw in previous post.