Things you need to know about the desi spacecraft Reusable Launch Vehicle

India created history today after it successfully launched its 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. It was the first swadeshi made space vehicle built by Indian scientists.

Five things to know about the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) shuttle:

• The 6.5 metre-long scale model was built by 600 scientists over 5 years. The vehicle weighs over 1.75 tonnes and was made at a cost of Rs 95 crore.
• The new re-usable technology was aimed to help reduce the cost of launching objects into space by 10 times which can be boost for other projects.
• The spacecraft was launched atop a nine-ton rocket engine that has been designed to burn slowly to accommodate vertical lifting of the body.
• It was for the first time that ISRO flew a winged body and brought it back to land on a make-shift runway.
• No other country is currently operationally flying a winged spacecraft into space - the US retired its space shuttles in 2011 and the Russians flew theirs only once in 1989. 
• This RLV-TD is described as a preliminary step in the development of a reusable rocket whose final version is expected to take shape in 10 to 15 years.
• The reason why scientists look forward to their successful making is these are cost-effective ways to look into mysteries of space.

This remains to be noted here that India is not the only one to test this technology but Russia, Japan and European Space Agency are also on the way of developing similar technology and are in testing stages.