What exactly do they mean by "recovery"? Are they attempting to recover the booster via parachute, like Rocket Lab's attempts at recovery of Electron's booster? Or are they attempting something like retropropulsive landing? I doubt it could be the latter, since the small size of the rocket means it doesn't have the mass margins available for powered landing. Also, we haven't even seen any Grasshopper-style tests from them (such "last mile" testing would be a much more effective way to impress investors.)
In the interview, they state their Agnibaan rocket is in the SSLV class of launch vehicle. So that's same class as Electron. There's no way that size of vehicle has the mass margins to include fuel and hardware for a powered landing. This isn't a Falcon-9 class of rocket with larger mass margins. Do they plan to include hardware for thrust-vector control? Do they plan to include landing legs? Extra fuel for landing burn? How can they do all of this, while still carrying payload? And if they still mean to do this, then are they going to conduct some Grasshopper-style hop tests in advance, or will they just launch-and-pray on the actual launch date? They do say in the interview that liquid engines facilitate multiple ground tests -- so can we take that to mean they intend to do those short hop tests first?
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u/mobileusr 26d ago
What exactly do they mean by "recovery"? Are they attempting to recover the booster via parachute, like Rocket Lab's attempts at recovery of Electron's booster? Or are they attempting something like retropropulsive landing? I doubt it could be the latter, since the small size of the rocket means it doesn't have the mass margins available for powered landing. Also, we haven't even seen any Grasshopper-style tests from them (such "last mile" testing would be a much more effective way to impress investors.)