Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), stepping up to an another level, successfully test launched the first “Made In India” space shuttle called Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) on early morning today from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The reusable launch vehicle program, which was abandoned by US’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2011, successfully completed by the Indian space scientist and it’s now considered as the most important as well as the significant step in India’s space endeavor.

The test launch of the RLV measures as 6.5 meter long and weighs 1.75 ton occurred at 7 am on toady from Satish Dhawan SPace Center.

“Mission accomplished successfully,” said ISRO after the launch.

The RLV-TD, which is being developed to lower down the cost of India’s space programs, is considered as a very preliminary step in the development of reusable rocket, and it will take more 10-15 years for the final version.

“The experimental RLV it is essentially an attempt by India to bring down the cost of making infrastructure for space.” Explained ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar.

Kumar further said, “The RLV is a mechanism for us to bring down the cost of launch. We intend to go through a series of technology demonstration exercises, the first one of which we call HEX-01, that is a hypersonic experiment. It is called a winged body”

“Therefore, we are designing for the first time a winged body, which will come back from space. It will be carried up on a solid rocket motor. In addition, this is the first of a series of experiments and we still have a long way to go till we reach the actual RLV, which will give us a tremendous capacity in terms of launching at a very low cost,” he added.

The government has invested Rs. 95 crores in the RLV-TD project.

By Prajakt K.