ISRO RLV-TD: India's first reusable space shuttle

This is the first time ISRO has launched a winged flight vehicle, which glided back onto a virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal, some 500 kilometres from the coast. Known as hypersonic flight experiment, it was about 10 minutes mission from liftoff to splashdown. (Photo Courtesy: ISRO)

India on May 23 successfully launched the first technology demonstrator of indigenously made Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), capable of launching satellites into orbit around earth and then re-enter the atmosphere, from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. (Photo Courtesy: ISRO)

The RLV-TD is a scaled-down model of the reusable launch vehicle. RLV, being dubbed as India’s own space shuttle, is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on-demand space access, according to ISRO scientists. (Photo Courtesy: ISRO)

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 re-usable vehicle, ISRO said. (Photo Courtesy: ISRO)

It has been configured to act as a flying testbed to evaluate various technologies, including hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion, it said. (Photo Courtesy: ISRO)

The 6.5 metre long ‘aeroplane’-like structure weighing 1.75 tons was 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 in 10 to 15 years. (Photo Courtesy: ISRO)