ISRO achieved its third and final consecutive success in the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Landing EXperiment (LEX) on June 23, 2024.

ISRO achieved its third and final consecutive success in the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Landing EXperiment (LEX) on June 23, 2024. "Pushpak" executed a precise horizontal landing, showcasing advanced autonomous capabilities under challenging conditions. With the objectives of RLV LEX accomplished, ISRO embarks into RLV-ORV, the orbital reusable vehicle.

On March 22, Isro completed the second landing experiment of its reusable launch vehicle (RLV) named "RLV-LEX-02." On Sunday, Isro carried out the third landing experiment (RLV-LEX-03), advancing towards an orbital re-entry test.

The test took place at 7:10 am at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) located at Challakere in Chitradurga district, around 220km from Bengaluru. On March 22, Isro finished the second landing experiment of its reusable launch vehicle (RLV) named "RLV-LEX-02."

On Sunday, the organization carried out the third landing experiment (RLV-LEX-03), marking progress toward an orbital re-entry test. The test took place at 7:10 am at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Challakere, located in Chitradurga district, approximately 220km from Bengaluru.

In a statement, ISRO announced its third consecutive success in the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Landing Experiment (LEX) today. It stated that the third and final test in the series of LEX (03) was carried out at 07:10 IST at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Chitradurga, Karnataka.

Following the achievements of the RLV LEX-01 and LEX-02 missions, ISRO has reported that the RLV LEX-03 mission successfully showcased the autonomous landing capability of the RLV under even more challenging release conditions, with a cross range of 500 m compared to 150 m for LEX-02, and in more severe wind conditions.

The Indian space shuttle (RLV), has been under development for over a decade, with the government spending more than ₹100 crore into the project.

Mr Somanath commended the team for their dedication in upholding a string of accomplishments in such challenging missions. Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Dr S Unnikrishnan Nair, highlighted that this ongoing success bolsters ISRO's confidence in crucial technologies for upcoming orbital re-entry missions.