RLV-TD, India’s first reusable space shuttle, launched from Sriharikota

The RLV-TD is described as “a very preliminary step” in the development of a reusable rocket, whose final version is expected to take 10-15 years.

For the very first time in its history, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday launched its very own indigenous version of a ‘space shuttle’, a fully made-in-India effort, creating history.

The purpose of the experiment was not to see it float but to glide and navigate from a velocity five times higher than the speed of sound onto a designated virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal some 500 km from the coast.

Very similar in its looks to the US space shuttle, the double delta-winged RLV-TD is a scale model almost six times smaller than the final version. The 6.5-m-long ‘aeroplane’-like structure weighs 1.75 tonnes and will be hoisted into the atmosphere on a special rocket booster.

The RLV-TD is described as “a very preliminary step” in the development of a reusable rocket, whose final version is expected to take 10-15 years.

RLV-TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that have been considered as a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully reusable vehicle.

Under Monday’s preliminary mission, a suborbital one, a double-delta winged vehicle, which more or less resembles an aircraft, was launched.

The 6.5 meter-long vehicle, having a mass of 1.75 tonne, is expected to go up to around 70 km after which it is expected to descend at a particular point on the sea.

Sivan said the proposed mission would be just a “baby step” in terms of the RLV technology and no way near to the real Reusable Launch Vehicle. “What we do now is only a demonstration.

 

WATCH: India launches its first indigenous space shuttle, the RLV-TD from Sriharikota(Andhra Pradesh)http://t.co/G0SxiQbJgw

— ANI (@ANI_news) May 23, 2016

It is no way near to the real RLV. It is like a drop test to bring back a launched vehicle to some point. It is just a baby step towards the giant leap,” he had said.

Flush air-data system, slow burning propellant and composite movable fin are among the significant features of the RLV-TD. The total cost of the mission is estimated to be around Rs 95 crore, the VSSC Director said adding the launch would give major inputs for the designing of the full-scale RLV in future.