In an attempt to make the rockets lighter and carry heavier payloads, ISRO has planned to flight test the air-breathing rocket which will use atmospheric oxygen as fuel. Air breathing engines use atmospheric oxygen and burn it with the stored on-board fuel to generate the upward thrust. Conventional rockets carry both oxygen and fuel on board.ISRO on 28th August, 2016 has successfully tested a pair of its scramjet engines - an air breathing ramjet in which combustion takes in a super sonic air flow. The engines were tested during a sub-orbital flight of Advanced Technology Vehicle ( ATV D02).
The total weight of the ATV rocket was 3270 Kgs and is based on Rohini-560 lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota at 06:00 AM IST on 28th August, 2016. The total flight duration lasted about 5 minutes is the India's first experimental mission of the scramjet engine technology to develop indigenous air-breathing propulsion system..
During the flight, ISRO has tested the scramjet engines for five seconds. Once the second stage reached the desired conditions for start-up of the engine, the scramjet engines ignited and worked for about 5 seconds. The total mission of ATV-D02 ended with a planned touch down of the rocket in Bay of Bengal at about 320 Kilometers from Sriharikota. All the tests were conducted successfully as per ISRO statement.
The scramjet engines which use atmospheric oxygen can cut the costs of rocket launches by reducing the amount of oxidizer needed to be carried along with the fuel. With this flight, India became the fourth country in the world to flight test a scramjet engine. This launch marks an important mile stone in Indian space programme.
The mission which was earlier scheduled in July, 2016 was delayed due to the disappearance of Indian Air Force AN 32 plane on July 22, 2016 as many ships and aircrafts were patrolling the sea looking for the missing plane and people.
Here is a video about ATV-D02 Mission.
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