Isro successfully tests first indigenous space shuttle

The Indian Space Research Organisation gave the country another proud moment after it successfully tested indigenous mini space shuttle, the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), and demonstrated its space prowess.

This is the first time that ISRO will fly a winged body and bring it back on a makeshift runway in the Bya of Bengal.

The successful mission has enhanced ISRO’s capabilities as it can now arrange data on hypersonic speed, autonomous landing and powered cruise flight with the use of air-breathing propulsion.

The cost of developing the RLV technology is estimated to be about Rs 100 crores ($15 million).

A scale version of a “Reusable Launch Vehicle” or RLV-TD as it is launched from Sriharikota on the south-east coast of India.

Dubbed as India’s own space shuttle, RLVs are being seen as the unanimous solution towards achieving low cost, reliable and on-demandspace access. The unmanned Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV-TD) launched early Monday morning, reached an altitude of 43 miles, then returned to Earth.

The flawless launch of the 6.5 meter-long scale model of the re-usable launch vehicle which weighed about 1.75 tons has propelled the nation into becoming the third country after U.S. and Russian Federation to have launched a space shuttle.

The ISRO has designed and built the 1.7-tonne winged RLV-TD as a flying test bed to evaluate technologies developed to reduce the cost of launching rockets for carrying satellites into polar and geo-stationary orbits. The price of launching vehicles into space is more than 10 times more expensive, but it’s the reusable technology that has helped in reducing the costs.

“The vehicle’s Navigation, Guidance, and Control system accurately steered the vehicle during [atmospheric re-entry] for safe descent”, ISRO said in a statement. “It will be carried up on a solid rocket motor”, he added. The RLV-TD is a toned-down model of the reusable launch vehicle.

SpaceX tested its powerful Falcon 9 rocket in December while Blue Origin s New Shepard successfully completed a third launch and vertical landing in April this year.